René Burri

1933−2014

After studying at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich with Johannes Itten and Hans Finsler, René Burri (Swiss, 1933−2014) began working as an assistant cameraman. He photographed his first reportage in 1953. In 1955 he began working as a freelance photojournalist and joined the Magnum agency. Burri has taken portraits and other photographs for essays and reportage in, among other places, Czechoslovakia (1955), France (1957), South America (1958 and 1960), Japan (1961), Cuba (1963), and China (1965) for international magazines such as Life, Stern, and Du. His lengthy stay in Germany resulted in the book Die Deutschen (The Germans, 1962).