Rare Collection of Elliott Erwitt Color Photos Show He Didn’t Just Use Black and White

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A group of women in black dresses and tall white headdresses walk in a line along a rocky shoreline under a blue sky, followed by a small white dog.

Legendary documentary photographer Elliott Erwitt was best known for his black and white images that often touch on the absurd, but he shot plenty of color photographs, too.

A new edition of Elliott Erwitt’s book, Kolor, presents a fresh compilation of the famous photographer’s color photographs. Carefully selected from an archive of nearly half a million Kodachrome slides, the 304 pages reveal a vibrant kaleidoscope of photographs — some over 70 years old — whose colors have been remarkably preserved.

The subjects range from world leaders to playful showgirls, from bustling marketplaces to military camps, from Las Vegas to Venice — all imbued with Erwitt’s unmistakable dry humor and keen sensibility.

A woman sits in the driver’s seat of a vintage blue car with a large dog beside her; both look through the windshield on a sunlit road with dry hills in the background.

A sailboat with a striped black, white, and red sail is anchored near the shore at sunset. Four people are silhouetted on nearby rocks, one seated above the others, with the calm water in the background.

A man and a woman sit at a restaurant table with white tablecloths, glassware, and bread rolls. The man examines a wine glass while the woman gestures towards it. A mural of ancient statues and columns is on the wall behind them.

The book’s authors say that Erwitt’s association with black and white photography has obscured a large body of work that’s mostly in color. The book’s title, Kolor, is a playful nod to George Eastman, who founded Kodak and liked the letter K.

Much of the work in the book is Erwitt’s professional photographs, assignments for magazines, advertisers, or corporate clients, yet they still bear his signature humor and timing. He took these photos to support his true passion for street photography.

“I figured if what I was doing amounted to advertising, I might as well get paid an advertising rate, so I eased out of editorial and took up advertising with a vengeance,” Erwitt said. “Assignment photography requires a certain logic that I find appealing. Like, how can I satisfy the client and still get something out of this for myself?”

Two children play matador and bull outdoors. One child waves a red cloth while dressed as a matador; the other wears horns and pretends to be a bull, charging at the cloth in a dirt-covered yard.

Three men stand on a street near a large stone bust in a wall niche, flanked by colorful clusters of balloons and balls for sale. The scene has an old-world, urban atmosphere with weathered brick and stone.

Two women stand in doorways of a pink building. The woman on the left wears green shorts and holds popcorn, while the woman on the right, barefoot, wears plaid pants and a black top, holding a plate. Both doors are slightly open.

A black cat with wide eyes stands between a person’s legs, wearing white fishnet stockings and gold heels. The person is dressed in a white skirt, and the background is bright red.

An adult and a child ride a bicycle down a tree-lined rural road. The adult pedals while the child sits on the rear seat, holding two long baguettes. The road is empty and flanked by evenly spaced trees.

Seven people, including a woman in a white dress and six men in cowboy attire, pose in front of a wooden building under construction. The cover reads "ELLIOTT ERWITT’S KOLOR.

Erwitt would schedule his corporate assignments so that he had time to go and shoot on his Leica to make his personal black and white photographs, the ones he is most famous for. The assignments got him out of New York, taking him to places he could look at with fresh eyes.

Elliot Erwitt: Kolor is published by teNeues.

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