It flows, all right. War, cruelty, unspeakable misery. They appeal to Erwitt aesthetically, he says, but not as pictures to take. He gets space to write about his precocious infantile performers - but not because of his status, which he is touchy about. Whoever wants to say something, says it.
Photographers are complex creatures.
Some refuse to do any kind of advertising, others won't do production stuff. Erwitt does it all. I am a commercial photographer, too. But the pictures in my books are personal, my hobby. Taken for no special purpose.