From the Lower East Side in New York City, Elisofon graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in 1929 and Fordham University in 1933.

He was one of the most active and productive members: he gave guest lectures (1938–43); co-organized the Men at Work project with Lewis Hine (1940); served periodically as president between 1939 and 1941; taught courses on photojournalism and flash photography (1940–41); and participated in numerous exhibitions.

It must extend the field of feeling and vision we are born with.” From 1938 to 1942 he ran a commercial photography studio called August and Co., making photographs for advertising and fashion.

Early in his career, Elisofon made it his mission to “point his camera at things that needed attention.” In 1937 he met the photographer and filmmaker Willard Van Dyke who introduced him to Harper's Bazaar art director Alexey Brodovitch, who in turn introduced him to Beaumont Newhall, the curator of photography at MoMA and Tom Maloney, the editor of U.S.

Eliot Elisofon published many books, including "The Technique of Wood Sculpture", with his friend Chaim Gross, Epstein, New York, 1939; "Food is a Four Letter Word", foreword by Gypsy Rose Lee, Rinehart, 1948; "African Folktales and Sculpture", James Johnson Sweeny, Bollingen Series XXX11, 1953; "The Art of Indian Asia" by Heinrich Zimmer, edited by Joseph Campbell, illustrations, Bollingen Foundation, 1955; "The Sculpture of Africa", text by William Fagg, Praeger, 1955 (published in USA, England, France and Germany; this book on African sculpture is referenced by name in Daniel Olivas’s short story “Good Things Happen at Tina’s Café” featured in his collection “The King of Lighting Fixtures” published by the University of Arizona Press in 2017); "Color Photography", Viking, 1961 (published in US, England, France, Germany, Denmark and Finland); "The Nile", with an introduction by Laurens van der Post, Viking, 1964; "Africa's Animals", with Marvin Newman, Doubleday, 1967; "Hollywood Style", text by Arthur Knight, Macmillan, 1969; "Java Diary", Macmillan, 1969; "The Cooking of India", text by Santha Rama Rau, illustrations, Time/Life Books, 1969; "The Hollywood Style", text by Arthur Knight, Macmillan, 1969; "The Cooking of Japan", text by Rafael Steinberg, illustrations, Time/Life Books, 1970; "A Week in Agata's World: Poland", Crowell-Collier, 1970; "A Week in Leonora's World: Puerto Rico", Crowell-Collier, 1971; "Erotic Spirituality: The Vision of Konarak", text by Alan Watts, Macmillan, 1971, 1974; and "Zaire, A Week in Joseph's World", Crowell-Collier, 1973.