Gelatin silver print on baryte paper with margins (50 x 60.6 cm)

Marc Riboud, one of the great names of Magnum, is best known for his extensive reports on the East: The Three Banners of China (1966), Face of North Vietnam (1970), Visions of China (1981) and his recent In China (1996).

Riboud values authenticity and thinks of the photographer as an existential traveler. Remarkable for their spontaneity and harmony, his Eastern documentaries are rich in encounters and portraits of citizens who pause long enough to give some account of themselves, while his color photography gives sweeping views of untouched nature and chaotic urban life.

Born in Lyon, Riboud went to high school there and made his first picture in 1937. He was active in the French Resistance from 1943 to 1945 then studied engineering at the Ecole Centrale in Lyons (1945-48). Until 1951 Riboud worked as an engineer in Lyons factories then became a freelance photographer and moved to Paris in 1952. Invited to join Magnum as an associate that same year by Cartier-Bresson and Capa, Riboud also became a friend of George Rodger whom he later joined in the Middle East.

In 1955 Riboud became a full member of Magnum. The next year he made a long trip to India. In 1957 he was one of the first European photographers to go to China and he returned for a lengthy stay in 1965 with writer K.S. Karol. Riboud served as president of Magnum from 1975-76.

In 1968, 1972 and 1976, Riboud made several reportages on North Vietnam and later traveled all over the world, but mostly in Asia, Africa, the US and Japan.

Riboud's photographs have appeared in numerous magazines, including Life, Géo, National Geographic, Paris-Match, Stern. He twice won the Overseas Press Club Award (1966 and 1970), and has had major retrospective exhibitions at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1985) and the International Center of Photography, New York (1988 and 1997).

He became a Magnum contributor in 1980. In recent years he has shot his stories mainly in black and white and on his own initiative. His most recent work was made in Turkey.[magnumphotos]


Partial Bibliography

Women of Japan, 1959
Le Bon Usage du monde, 1964
Three Banners of China, 1966
Faces of North Vietnam, 1970
Bangkok, 1972
Chine: Instantanés de Voyage, 1980
Marc Riboud, photos choisies 1953-1985, 1985
Marc Riboud: Journal, 1986
Marc Riboud: l'embarras du choix, 1988
Photo Poche 37: Marc Riboud 1989
Huang Shan, 1989
Le Grand Louvre, 1989
Angkor: Sérénité bouddhique, 1992
In China, 1996
Marc Riboud In China: Forty Years of Photography 1997