Rene Burri

[Bill Pierce]

Rene Burri died two days ago. A lot of you know he was an exceptional photographer. He was also an exceptional human. He had a few years on me and still outran me. When my airplane flight got rescheduled and I had no place to stay when we were covering Tiananmen Square, he shared his hotel room. As an extra bonus I got a guided tour through his book “The Germans.” I spotted one picture that was actually a print comprised of two adjacent frames. He laughed and said I was one of the few people who realized what it was, that Bresson hadn’t spotted it. I finally got my plane out. Rene stayed to rewalk the mountainous part of Mao’s Long March. As I said, he could outrun me. Every time we crossed paths, it was an exceptional pleasure. I suppose there are a lot of good photographers in the world. There are few that had his kindness, his generosity and his genuine love for the people around him. The cliche “He will be missed.” is an understatement.


http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/21/rene-burri

http://vimeo.com/68146128

http://www.pdnonline.com/news/Obituary-Rene-Burri-11882.shtml

http://www.filmsnotdead.com/2014/10/21/remembering-magnum-photographer-rene-burri/

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL5350UE

 

[Michael Markey]

Lovely tribute , Bill.

 

[RichardBrown]

He was one of my favourite Magnum photographers. His photos had so much class to them. I'm sure he will be greatly missed.

 

[Kevcaster]

Yes very nice reflections. His pictures were/are favourites of mine too, it seems to me that he was a great composer of pictures, often in the split second of capture, although I have seen just a small sampling. I own a copy of his illustrated book 'In search of the Holy Land' - with text from HV Morton's book 'In the Steps of the Master'. In this the publishers manage to allow each medium to communicate unmanipulated, quite rare in my experience.

We are fortunate to have you Bill, someone who writes in this forum and has such wonderful recollections and links to the events and the photographers and writers who brought them to life for us. My understanding has been greatly enriched by this.
Kevin

 

[ChrisLivsey]

Echoing the appreciation of your post.

Can I add the BJP links?

http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/10/the-life-and-times-of-rene-burri/

http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/10/magnum-photographer-rene-burri-dies/

 

[telenous]

.... I suppose there are a lot of good photographers in the world. There are few that had his kindness, his generosity and his genuine love for the people around him...

...

Love his photography, thank you for this tribute. There's no greater accolade than this, to be remembered first for being a great human being.

.

 

[Peter David Grant]

Bill, thank you for sharing your personal insight.

I need to look more at his photographs, maybe get a couple of his books. Do any of you have recommendations?

 

[semordnilap]

Thanks for your remembrances, Bill.

I really appreciated this bit in the Times obituary:

Mr. Burri was almost as fastidious about refraining from taking pictures as about taking them. He thought photos of battlefield violence aroused emotions without providing insight. During the Six-Day War in 1967, for example, he saw a blackened hand sticking up out of the Middle East sand.

“If I’d taken a photo of it, it would have been shown all over the world — but I just couldn’t,” he told The Guardian Weekly in 1984.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/arts/rene-burri-photographer-of-picasso-and-che-dies-at-81.html

 

[robert blu]

Thanks for this tribute. He was human. He was a special photographer.
robert

 

[doolittle]

As a teenager, before I was seriously interested in photography, I had a poster of his Sao Paulo picture on my wall. It was years later before I discovered who the photographer was.

Thanks for the links, really enjoyed the vimeo video.
May he rest in peace.

 

[rjschell]

Being a great photographer is fine, but being a great photographer AND a great human being can't be beat.

 

[Turtle]

Thank you Bill. I loved his work and its great to hear the man was equally loveable.

May he rest in peace.