In a career spanning more than 70 years, Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt had photographed politicians, movie stars, beaches, dozens of children and hundreds of dogs. He was one of the few photographers who could make people laugh with his images and most importantly, his photos used humor like no others to raise consciousness on serious topics. Rick Smolan, a photographer and Erwitt son-in-law, confirmed the sad news in an email this afternoon: “At 95 it was a pretty good run and while I know he was incredibly modest I hope he took pride the impact he had for so many decades on so many lives  – when you think of all the shooters he inspired (including your’s truly) – it’s pretty astounding.”

Erwitt belonged to the era of the early days of Magnum defined by passionate and committed comrades, Robert Capa, Cartier-Bresson… The eccentric, mischievous son of a Russian immigrant, who spoke fluent French and possessed unsatiable curiosity, Erwitt understood very quickly that his art must remain a hobby.

Born in Paris in 1928, “Elio” arrived in New York at the age of ten, after spending his childhood in Italy. He got into photography at 15, officially to “earn a living.” His first real camera, “a photographer’s notebook,” was a Rolleiflex. He had a great sense of humor, talent, and a prankster’s eye. Already in his early photos he was a master of derision. He would poke fun at the world, de-dramatize what should be shocking, hunt down the comical, and photograph the street as if it were a comic strip.

Humor

From the start, Erwitt was constantly “watching people, things, and human behavior.” Spying is his favorite pastime, and he keeps a camera close, tethered by a lanyard. But there are moments he does without. “When I go to relieve myself, I don’t bring the camera. My mind is on other things,” he likes to joke. A sign over the toilet in his bathroom keeps the user on track: “Please aim directly.”

Erwitt has always had a penchant for jokes and witticisms. Jimmy Fox, editor-in-chief at Magnum in the 1960s, could spend hours recounting Erwitt’s antics. Like the agency’s New Year’s Eve party, when the photographer came dressed up as Santa Claus, or the pranks he played to lighten the mood: “When people were too tense on a shoot Elliott would get out an old car horn and blow it to make people laugh and loosen them up.”

A bit of a rabble-rouser, but without a mean bone in his body, Erwitt was a kind of an intellectual of humor. He always denied it, claiming he had a “poor education.” But he used his wit to attract the eye, to capture whatever surprises or moves him, or what he found amusing. His gaze constantly oscillated between joy, astonishment, and sadness.

He made the spectator aware of serious subjects, questioned the world, and rejected indifference. Ferdinando Scianna, another Magnum veteran, and a great photographer with similarly impeccable French, knows Erwitt in and out: “You can’t be ironic without being intelligent. Elliott’s photos should be inserted into survival kits. When you’re desperate, they can save your life.”

Men and women

Elliott Erwitt may have been a dreamer, but he always kept one foot firmly on the ground. He observed the “human comedy” like a sociologist. Scianna said it best: “Elliott is an eminently political photographer. He likes to show differences between people, always using mockery to avoid being too buttoned up.” Erwitt’s famous photo of the segregated drinking fountains falls into this category. The paradoxical composition of the scene highlights the inanity of racism: the black fountain is for the whites, and both races share the same water supply. Similarly, “when a Black soldier sticks out his tongue at the camera, that’s Elliott Erwitt making faces at the military establishment.”

There is no secret to good photography. With Erwitt, everything seemed easy. “In photography, thinking isn’t of much use, you have to see.” There is no special recipe, but there were mentors, starting with Capa, who brought Erwitt into Magnum, an agency he worked with throughout his life and later directed. Henri Cartier-Bresson, the man who taught young Elliott to always go out armed with a camera, once said: “To photograph is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.” From this “gold standard,” as he calls it, Erwitt learned how to forge his own style, to learn to find the moment, of course, with a precise dose of the heart, the eye, and the mind.

He never talked much about the subject. Nor, as a matter of fact, does he talked much at all. Erwitt was eloquent in his silence. Modesty is perhaps one of the secrets that allowed him to aim his lens at many celebrities: Marilyn Monroe, Che Guevara, Clark Gable, and John F. Kennedy, whose family appreciated him in particular.

The photographer had always been close to celebrities. In 2010, he opened the imposing metal door to his ground-floor studio in his home in Central Park West to welcome his assistant visiting his archives. The sound of the piano could be heard from the apartment above. It was his neighbor playing. “Don’t worry, it’s Sting.” The English singer penned a note in Erwitt’s latest book, Found Not Lost, published in 2021, citing him in one breath with the biggest names in American photography.

Erwitt’s name is also synonymous with poetry and glamour. An 2023 exhibition at the Maillol Museum in Paris presented several of his iconic fashion photos, including the delightful shot of a black cat poking its head between the perfect legs of a model, or the photo of Marilyn with unmistakable blue eyes and blond curls. Scianna, who knows a thing or two about the genre, comments: “Elliott always knew how to get an extraordinarily sensual look from all the women he photographed.”

Pia Frankenberg, Erwitt’s ex-wife, said he was laconic and, like many artists, hard to pin down. In a 2003 interview with The Guardian, she recalled, “Now that I know him, I feel for everyone who is a little intimidated because they don’t know how to handle him. It is like when people think that comedians are funny people and they are not.” One of the—a total of four—women he married famously played a trick on him by hiding the negatives of his best photos in a bed after their separation had been announced. The negatives were reported missing and were only found years later.

The nonagenarian had made a lot of money from commercial photography. Take the ad campaign for the French Office of Tourism, memorable for the picture of a man on a bicycle, with his son and a baguette on the rack, which is now in museum collections. With the proceeds, Erwitt was able to purchase a house at the edge of Central Park and a second home in the Hamptons. But he had known much less prosperous times. He remained a humanist, close to the “little people,” and turns a critical eye on the rich and the powerful. “One could say that I am on the Left,” he said reluctantly. What place does the human being have in his photography? “The human is neither a flower, nor a building, nor an animal.”

Dogs

Elliott Erwitt was a collector of images. He often has to let them mature, like good wine, before bringing them to the public. Dogs were among his favorite subjects. He immortalized them in human poses: a way to put man and animal on the same level. His passion for the canine species developed over time, when he realized that they were abundantly represented on his negatives.

In recent years, Sammy, a Scottish terrier born in Hamburg, could still be seen wandering around Erwitt’s apartment: a multilingual refugee, a bit quirky, gentle, and quiet, just like his master. Before that, there were others, bigger ones, like Great Danes. Just ask Jimmy Fox. He knew these dogs well because he had to take care of them whenever Elliott Erwitt dropped off them at Magnum’s New York office before leaving on assignment.

This old-timer in the world of photography had remained a child at heart: fully of whimsy and talent. “Elliott’s photos are recognizably his, and they have been from the very start,” says Scianna. “That’s a difficult thing to accomplish in photography. Normally, one gets there by exaggerating the form. In Elliott’s work, the form appears to be simplicity itself.”

In an interview with Le Monde in 2010 (probably one of the best interviews ever done with a photographer), Erwitt explained his philosophy: “I am a craftsman. I often say that I am a photographer with a hobby, which is photography. Most of my images are commercial, but I also take pictures for my own pleasure. Sometimes the two go together, but not always.”

In 2011, the International Center of Photography, awarded him the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Did it mean his career was over? “No, the award wants only my life to be over.” In the decade that followed, the photographer published seven books, some including never-seen photographs, and produced several retrospectives and themed exhibitions, for example about England, Scotland, or simply about color. The man never stoped. Mr. Erwitt, how did you learn how to photograph? “I read the instructions on the back of the box.”

More information and photos on Elliott Erwitt on Magnum’s website.

100 photos for press freedom, Reporters sans Frontières – Eliott Erwitt, Released November 2, 2023.

Cover photo: Elliott Erwitt in reflection, Tropicana Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 1957 © Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos

This month, Squarespace added a feature that allows website owners to opt out of artificial intelligence crawlers; however, some photographers are dismayed because the option appears to automatically be set to opt-in.

AI crawlers are bots that collect data from websites which are then used to train generative AI models such as image generators and chatbots. Crawler bots are nothing new but because of the perceived threat that AI poses, websites have begun blocking the crawlers, including PetaPixel.

The issue has risen to the surface because generative AI models have become so good that they can imitate real photography.

Squarespace’s Default Setting for AI Crawlers: Opt-In

Squarespace announced a new feature earlier this month which allows website owners to hide their site from search engines and AI crawlers. However, photographers have found that the default setting for both search engines and AI crawlers is to allow them.

Most photographers will want to be indexed by Google crawlers for obvious reasons but it’s many photographers do not want AI crawlers taking their image data.

Miguel Quiles, a professional portrait photographer based in Orlando, Florida, made a video about the AI crawlers after he was updating his Squarespace website and saw a section he hadn’t come accross before.

“Out of curiosity, I clicked on it to see what it was about and saw the artificial intelligence crawlers option,” Quiles explains in the video above. “What surprised me most is that this option was actually turned on by default.”

Others online have expressed outrage that the default is set to opt-in, Squarespace responded to one critic by saying, “We understand the concern. To clarify, AI models currently train on all public web data. This feature is not actively opting you in, but instead offers you the option to opt out and prevent your site from being crawled by artificial intelligence crawlers.”

Squarespace did not respond to PetaPixel‘s request for additional comment ahead of publication.

How to Turn Off AI Crawling on Squarespace

To change the AI crawler setting on Squarespace, open the settings panel, click “Crawlers”, and from there site owners will be presented with two options: “Search Engine Crawlers” and “Artificial Intelligence Crawlers.”

For users who don’t want their site to be crawled by AI, toggling the setting to off will prevent it. Most will probably want to keep the search engine crawlers toggle left on to help the site’s visibility, as without it Google won’t be able to properly index the contents of the site.

Crawlers can also be blocked by adding a line of code to the robots.txt of the site.

John Mollura stands in the Farmacy Market where he will be offering cooking tips and advice to customers (Photo courtesy of Facebook)

Known throughout the area for his photography and motivational speaking, John Mollura has revealed another talent that he is bringing to Milford. Recently, he announced that he would be working at The Farmacy, a new, fresh food market located in downtown Milford. The Farmacy, jointly owned by the Helmick and Shupe family offers locally grown produce, meats and other unique cooking items.

“When things get put on your heart, do you move? What if they’re not what you would choose to do? What if that situation plays into your long-held fears?” Mollura posted on social media recently. “I’ve learned that when God puts something on my heart, I need to take action.”

Last summer, Mollura decided to put his studio in Penny Square up for availability as his photography business was moving slowly. He began offering his services as a motivational speaker, bringing a voice to Imposter Syndrome, the feeling that even when you should be proud of an accomplishment, you feel as if you do not deserve recognition for it. As Mollura described it, Imposter Syndrome is the feeling of being “fake” and undeserving of accolades, something that affects up to 70 percent of people. However, as he grew the second business he began after leaving a career as a rocket scientist, Mollura realized he would need a part-time job in the meantime, something he didn’t even want to entertain at first.

“About two weeks ago, God whispered in my ear a person I needed to reach out to, and the opportunity I felt was waiting for me, even if it meant swallowing my pride,” Mollura continued on social media. “You might not know this about me, but I am a hella-good cook. It’s actually my hobby. Some people read People Magazine, I read Food Network Magazine.”

According to Mollura, when he has a bad day, he takes the advice of Matthew McConohey in “Failure to Launch.” The character, Trip, says, “Pour yourself a glass of wine and turn on the Food Network; it’ll take the edge right off.” Mollura credits “Alton, Valerie, Eduardo, Emeril (BAM), Ree and Giada for “being there” for him.

“So, what was put on my heart? To reach out to my friend Patrick Helmick to see if he needed help launching his new brick-and-mortar store,” Mollura said. “When I spoke to Patrick, he said that my name had crossed his heart to reach out to and then, a few days later, I messaged him. We don’t believe in coincidences.”

While at the store, Mollura will be doing almost everything that needs to be done.

“With the Farmacy Market being so new, there is no shortage of things to do,” Mollura said. “From assembling shelves, to helping install the phone system, and of course, helping customers. I love having varied tasks. My mentor when I was a test engineer used to refer to it as “other duties as assigned,” so I’m familiar with pitching in with whatever tasks need to be completed.”

Since the Farmacy Market specializes in local and extremely high-quality foods, rooted in the mindset that food is medicine, Mollura is excited to talk to customers about what they enjoy cooking and eating or what the person they are buying a gift for enjoys, then showing them some options that would be perfect to take home. When asked if he would be offering cooking classes or offering demonstrations, he answered that there were some exciting things being discussed for 2024 as the business is operated by “creative and entrepreneurial minded people working together.”

“I was a picky eater when I was younger. My parents both worked when I was growing up and my mom would leave me notes to help get dinner ready. Helping to get the dinner on the table became a source of pride for me, even if it was just a tuna sandwich and some microwave French fries for my dad to scarf down in the minutes he had between coming home from work and then heading to night school. As I got older, and started eating out with friends, I began to enjoy a variety of food and then I would go home and experiment in the kitchen,” Mollura said when asked what got him into cooking. “When I graduated college I moved from my hometown of Johnstown, PA and I immediately began travelling extensively for work. I longed for home cooked meals with family and friends who were hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. When I would have some down-time in my single bedroom apartment in Dover, I didn’t have time to make many friends. That isolation, coupled with an intensely high-pressure job in the space program right out of college caused me to have a tremendous amount of anxiety that would sometimes slip into depression. My safe-haven and “happy place” was to watch Food Network and dream of having dinner parties of delicious creative home cooked food with friends.”

Focusing on cooking techniques of chefs in the 2000’s, like Rachel Ray, Giada De Laurentiis, Bobby Flay, Emeril and Alton Brown, Mollura was amazed at how their foundational knowledge of techniques, tastes and textures give them the ability to create complex dishes that are also unique. He calls it “humble ingredients kicked up a notch.”

“As my friend circle in Delaware slowly grew, we held weekly gatherings centered around home cooked food. When Brenda and I got married, we loved to entertain with fun and creative meals whenever I was in town,” Mollura said. “As I traveled across the planet for work, I enjoyed trying different flavors that the locals were always gracious to share with me. Sometimes I didn’t know what I was eating… and sometimes, I knew what I was eating, and I wish that I didn’t.  won’t say what the weirdest thing was as to not make anyone lose their appetite!”

In addition to his role at the Farmacy Market, Mollura continues to accept clients for both his photography and motivational speaking businesses, but finds this new venture to fall in line with his other artistic endeavors.

“The common thread with ALL of my artistic endeavors, whether it is portrait photography, motivational speaking or coaching, or cooking, is that I want people to realize and believe that they have worth and they are loved and cared for. My dear friend Paige has a sign in her kitchen that says, “show people how much you love them; cook them tasty food” and that sums it up for me,” Mollura said. “I love that food engages all of the senses; the tastes (of course), the sight of a beautifully plated dish, the textures, the sound a frying skillet, and all of the wonderful smells!”

For those who love to cook, but simply don’t know how to be adventurous in the kitchen, Mollura offered a few tips.

“I have an option for people looking to try new ingredients and also an idea for people looking to expand the flavors and seasonings they eat. First, If you want to branch out from ingredients you usually cook with, find something new that is “related” to what you currently eat. For example, if you’re used to eating a regular baked potato, buy some fingerling potatoes and prepare them as you usually would, and you can begin to taste the subtle and sometime substantial difference in flavors. If you like broccoli, try some broccoli rabe or broccolini,” Mollura said. “Second, if you are feeling adventurous with trying new the spices and seasonings find an ingredient you’re familiar with, like broccoli, and find a geographic region you’re interested in trying the flavors of, such as India. Do a quick internet search to see if that region uses that ingredient. If so, you can buy any number of prepared sauces and spice mixes to add to your ingredient and prepare as recommended and voila you will know whether the new flavors are for you, or not, but at least you tried!”

In addition to continuing his photography, motivational speaking and work at the Farmacy Market, Mollura also offers private cooking lessons. Anyone interested in scheduling a lesson can reach him at [email protected] to discuss where they are and what they are looking to learn. The Farmacy Market is located at 28 South Walnut Street in Milford.

“Anyone that calls to discuss private lessons, I’d be happy to share what those “too-weird-for-print” meals were,” Mollura joked.