Rene Burri Photographs

Achieving initial recognition with the seminal photo-essay "Die Deutschen" in 1962, Rene Burri has maintained the vantage point of "unassuming reporter" throughout his career. His egalitarian approach to photography has allowed him access to many events and people who remain elusive to the rest of us. After joining the photo agency Magnum in the late 1950s, Burri travelled extensively around the world from the Middle East to South America and the breadth of his travels is fully represented in this comprehensive book. Included are key moments in Burri's career, such as his 1960s portraits of famous artists like Picasso, Giacometti and Le Corbusier which he took for "Du" magazine. It was around this same time that he took the photograph used for the now iconic poster of Che Guevara smoking a cigar. Since the 1960s, Burri photographed war zones such as Cambodia and Vietnam and made films for the BBC. A contemporary of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Burri takes photographs with a unique warmth and egalitarianism that distinguishes him from his peers. "Rene Burri Photographs" is the culmination of several years of scholarly research by Hans-Michael Koetzle into Burri's important contribution to reportage photography. The book begins with an introduction that describes the history, politics and artistic influences that have coloured Burri's work. Each of the 22 chapters that follow it is accompanied by a brief essay that gives an overview of the images in that particular section, the time period and political climate. Each page is also accompanied by extended captions explaining the images.