René Burri (1933-2014)
John Hill
21. October 2014
René Burri talking about photographing Le Corbusier. Photo: Screenshot from "Six Photographs": René Burri
The great Swiss photographer died yesterday at the age of 81 after a long battle with cancer. In his tenure at Magnum Photos he memorably captured the buildings and personalities of Le Corbusier, Luis Barragan and Oscar Niemeyer, among others.
Burri joined the photo agency Magnum in 1956 after working in Paris and studying with Hans Finsler at the Arts and Crafts school of Zurich, where he was born. His assignments for Life, Look, and other magazines took him to many countries, from parts of Europe and Africa to Cuba and South America. While never considering himself an architectural photographer, he formed close friendships with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, shooting their buildings but also their portraits. Burri's documentary style can be seen as an influence on contemporary architectural photographers like Iwan Baan, who are not afraid to incorporate human figures and the "messiness" of modern life in their photos.
René Burri's photographs of Le Corbusier, Luis Barragan, Oscar Niemeyer and others can be seen in the traveling exhibition "Utopia: Photographs by Rene Burri of Architects and Architecture," found online at Magnum Photos. His 2013 interview with PORT, "Six Photographs": Rene Burri, embedded below, is also worth a look; in it he discusses six of his iconic photographs, such as of a chain-smoking Che Guevara and looking down on the rooftops of São Paulo, Brazil.