Kolor vs. Black and White

Earlier this month, teNeues released “Elliott Erwitt’s Kolor.” With more than four hundred photographs, the book spans Erwitt’s color work from the nineteen-fifties through the early nineties. Though teNeues is promoting “Kolor” as Erwitt’s first color book, in 2009 Erwitt published a collection of color and black-and-white photographs that poked fun at the art scene, under the pseudonym André S. Solidor. “Kolor” is a thoughtful exploration of more than forty years of photography. There are images from all over the world, portraits of movie stars and politicians, staged fashion photographs and street shots. “Unless I am taking pictures for my own pleasure, whether I shoot color or black and white is often determined by the assignment,” Erwitt told me. “Normally, I prefer shooting in black and white for my personal pictures. But now, having extensively examined my past color pictures, I am less dogmatic. In the end, it is only the quality of the picture that counts.”

Above is selection of Erwitt’s color work.

All photographs courtesy Elliott Erwitt, Magnum, and teNeues.