Erwitt was born in Paris, France, to Jewish-Russianimmigrant parents, who soon moved to Italy. In 1939, when he was ten, his family immigrated to the United States. He studied photography and filmmaking at Los Angeles City College and the New School for Social Research, finishing his education in 1950. In 1951 he was drafted into the Army, and decommissioned in 1953. He severved as a photographers assistant while stationed in France and Germany. He was influenced by Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker. One of the subjects Erwitt has frequently photographed in his career is dogs: they have been the subject of five of his books, Son of Bitch (1974), To the Dogs (1992), Dog Dogs (1998), Woof (2005), and Elliott Erwitt's Dogs (2008).