Boris later traveled to Japan to be ordained as a Buddhist priest and returned to practice his adopted religion in Manhattan.
Mr. Erwitt credited “shyness” — he had arrived in New York speaking no English — with making him a photographer.
He began seriously taking pictures in Los Angeles with an antique glass-plate camera when he was 16, then upgraded to a Rolleiflex.
The unheroic and the offbeat had already become signature motifs for Mr. Erwitt.
He made his first dog-related pictures in 1946, for a fashion story about women’s shoes for The New York Times Magazine.
Persons:
Boris, Erwitt, ” —, “, ”, Capa, Steichen, Henry, Henry Luce
Organizations:
Hollywood High School, Los Angeles City College, New School for Social Research, Army, Army Signal Corps, New York Times Magazine
Locations:
New Orleans, Japan, Manhattan, New York, Los Angeles, France