Picture: 15.8 x 23.7 cm
We are delighted to open the new season with a double exhibition of two of the most important figures in Swiss photographic history: René Burri (1933-2014) and Werner Bischof (1916-1954).
René Burri (1933-2014) is one of the most important figures in the history of Swiss photography. Following the example of earlier representatives of photography such as Werner Bischof, he left the photo studio after graduating from Hans Finsler's photography class at the Zurich School of Applied Arts in favour of reportage photography. Initially commissioned by various important magazines of the time, such as Life, Paris Match, Look and Du, and later as a member of the unique photographer co-operative Magnum Photos, he documented political upheavals and important contemporaries around the world. With his reportages, he always represented the humanistic aspirations of Magnum's founding period and placed people and the reality of their lives as well as universal needs that unite humanity at the centre of his work. His aesthetic approach to reportage, which strives for dignity, characterizes his iconic images just as much as the completely unknown subjects brought together in the selection carefully curated between the gallery and the family.
This is the first time that the family has released exclusive vintages and early prints from the estate for sale. Especially the backs of these thoroughly preserved prints from the 1960s to 1980s bear witness to the history and breathtaking journeys that not only the photographer, but also his photographs, underwent. Created in an era of analogue photography, the press prints were sent around the world between the Magnum offices in Paris, New York, London, Tokyo and for some time Zurich and the editorial offices of various magazines and publishing houses. Above all, the numerous stamps on the back of the prints tell of moments of editing, archiving and the struggle for the right to the image, without ever losing sense of the essentials, the story that needed to be told.
The third solo exhibition at Bildhalle is an expression of the long-standing collaboration between the gallery and the family and reveals the core of René Burri's work, which harbours true discoveries even for all who believe themselves to be familiar with it.
