Elliott Erwitt picks his personal best photographs

The Magnum photographer Elliott Erwitt has spent the last 50 years photographing anything and everything that comes to his mind. Famous images include Marilyn Monroe on the film set of The Misfits and President Nixon and Khrushchev arguing in Moscow in 1959, as well as many more personal images of places, people and animals which have Erwitt's signature playfulness and combine witty juxtapositions.

Erwitt has selected his personal favourite photographs from his career to date for his latest exhibition Personal Best at the International Center of Photography in New York (until 28 August).

While Cartier-Bresson focused on "l'instante critique", Erwitt's take is more "l'instante hysterique"; Erwitt knows how to find that moment when all things collide to produce 'the' image - of which there are a lot; Erwitt's career success lies in the sheer size of his collection. "It must be the longest sequence of photographs made in one instantly recognisable style," said Murray Sayle in the introduction to Erwitt's comprehensive book Snaps.

Elliott uses his long-polished technique of what he calls 'creative obedience' to improve his luck and the photographic opportunity within his commercial and journalistic work. "I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them," says Erwitt who often places stones or other natural markers to gauge focus and to indicate when to press the shutter on a moving object.

"Photography is an art of observation," explains Erwitt. "It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place."

The 'Erwitt' world, is one of laughs without malice, it is kindly, optimistic, there is no violence, no war, it is a world where Erwitt observes the people and photographs and it is very much his point of view on life.

Sally Ashley-Cound