Great Plains

Great Plains

Sacred Heart Curch, Wounded Knee, South Dakota 1969

Magnum

Elliot Erwitt is best known for his spontaneous, amusing observations of human and canine behavior around the world, usually made with a Leica camera and black & white 35mm film. Less famiiar is his commercial and editorial work, including a good deal of architectural photography. The cover image to this edition of Ian Frazier's acclaimed history of the Great Plains is of the Sacred Heart Church, built in 1812 on the Pine Ridge Sioux Indian Reservation, in Wounded Knee, South Dakota. An alternate view of the church (probably from the same shoot) taken in full sunlight and perhaps 30 feet away, can be found on the cover of 'Observations on American Architecture' (Viking 1972); a collaboration between Erwitt and the graphic designer Ivan Chermayeff. The image on the Frazier book cover is flipped horizontally from the original. KB

To view the cover of 'Observations on American Architecture' , click on 'Point of Interset' in the upper right corner.