René Burri with his famous photo of Che Guevara in 2004
Keystone
World-renowned Swiss photographer René Burri, known among others for his portraits of revolutionary hero Che Guevara and artist Pablo Picasso, died Monday in Zurich at the age of 81.
Burri, who was born in Zurich in 1933 and later moved to Paris, was hired by the prestigious Magnum agency in 1955, and travelled around the world documenting the major political events of the 20th Century.
Burri was only 13 years old when he photographed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill standing in an open-top car during a visit to Switzerland in 1946.
The photographer’s famous photo of cigar-chomping Che was taken in 1963 during a trip to Cuba.
He also captured a number of artists, including sculptor Alberto Giacometti and architect Le Corbusier.
Burri’s photographs received a number of awards and were presented in numerous exhibits, including one at the Museum for Design in his home town of Zurich in 2013.
In 2011 the photographer was awarded CHF20,000 ($21,215) and the Swiss Press Photo Life Time Achievement Award by the Foundation Reinhardt von Graffenried.
A longtime friend Michael von Graffenried, a Bernese photographer, confirmed Burri’s death on Monday.
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The work of René Burri, from Cuba to China
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Burri studied at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich. He started working as a documentary filmmaker and using a Leica camera while performing his military service. His life changed forever when he joined the prestigious photography agency Magnum Photos in 1955, introduced by Swiss photographer Werner Bischof. His first reportage appeared in ‘Life’ magazine…
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swissinfo.ch spoke to the Zurich-born artist and also looked at his style, influence and legacy. “A close friend once told me: ‘You know, you’re not a bad photographer, but you’ve done too much’,” Burri told swissinfo.ch. “And he was right.” He explained how his curiosity had no boundaries – whenever something was happening, he found…
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In his book Brasilia, Swiss photographer René Burri, who has been a member of the Magnum agency since 1959, documents the development of a utopia. Work on the city, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and town planner Lucio Costa, started in 1956. It became the official capital of Brazil in 1960.
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Burri became a full member of Magnum in 1959, when he started work on his book, The Germans, published in Switzerland in 1962. The book was similar to Robert Frank’s The Americans. And like The Americans, Burri’s photo essay on life in Germany was considered ahead of its time.
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swissinfo caught up with Burri, whose work is on show in a retrospective at Lausanne’s Elysée Photography Museum. Zurich-born Burri, 70, has wielded his lens on behalf of Magnum, the BBC, and several magazines, including “Life”. In the 1960s, he photographed Picasso, Giacometti and Le Corbusier, and in 1963 while working in Cuba he immortalised…
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If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.