The other day I accidentally came across Elliot Erwitts Museum Watching – at a sale in a museum shop. The book contains photos from a number of coutries and from half a century.

I might be a museum fetchist by profession. But I find Erwitts book extremely charming. His pictures of museum guest that are spectating, speculating or simply having fun are sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes funny – but never indifferent. The style is more or less classic street photography, but taken to the distinguished halls of museums…. 

As it is normally the case with books from Phaidon, the technical quality is impeccable.As it is normally the case with books from Phaidon, the technical quality is impeccable.

Elliott Erwitt: Museum Watching.
Phaidon, London 1999.
160 pages.