Rene Burri

Over the course of a half-century, the photographs of René Burri (1933–2014) have tracked the turning points, triumphs and crises of the twentieth century. Whether it was the 15-year-old Burri's portrait of Winston Churchill or his later portrayals of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon, Anwar as-Sadat or Muammar al-Gaddafi, all have lodged themselves in the collective consciousness. Removed from sensationalism yet no less striking are Burri's images of the theater of war, of people suffering in poverty and calamity. And as if to hold such horrors in check, Burri turned his lens with equal intensity to the spheres of beauty and creativity—to the landscapes of Latin America, to great artists such as Picasso and Maria Callas, and to luminaries of architecture such as Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer. This two-volume collection offers an extensive compilation of images from the eminent photojournalist.