ATLAS
Gallery
is
pleased
to
present
René
Burri:
Larger
than
Life
on
view
from
11
May
–
9
June
2012
at
ATLAS
Gallery
in
49
Dorset
Street,
London.
René
Burri
is
a
seminal
figure
in
the
world
of
photography.
A
longtime
member
of
the
prestigious
Magnum
agency,
he
is
responsible
for
some
of
the
most
iconic
images
of
our
age.
His
work
has
been
exhibited
in
and
collected
by
museums
worldwide
and
his
images
featured
in
virtually
every
magazine
title
published
over
the
last
60
years.
Burri
has
collaborated
closely
with
the
ATLAS
Gallery
for
many
years.
Larger
than
Life
features
René
Burri’s
most
iconic
and
celebrated
works
presented
for
the
first
time
in
a
monumental
size
and
limited
edition.
The
large
format
editions
are
up
to
50
X
70
inches
(120
X
180cm).
These
new
limited
edition
prints
dwarf
the
pieces
the
artist
has
hitherto
produced
which
have
for
the
most
part
been
small,
more
conventionally
framed,
black
and
white
prints.
Though
images
that
are
well
known
to
connoisseurs
of
Burri’s
photographs,
these
new
prints
offer
a
new
and
dynamic
re-‐interpretation
of
these
classic
works
in
a
contemporary
scale.
Born
in
Zürich
in
1933,
René
Burri
studied
design
and
composition,
and
worked
as
a
documentary
filmmaker
before
turning
to
photography
during
military
service.
He
first
made
contact
with
Magnum
in
1955,
through
Werner
Bischof,
when
his
first
reportage,
on
deaf-‐mute
children,
was
published
in
Life
and
other
European
magazines.
Henri
Cartier-‐Bresson
famously
sent
René
Burri
away
to
work
on
a
defining
body
of
work.
The
resulting
photographic-‐essay,
made
over
a
six-‐month
period,
was
a
photographic
poem
on
the
life
of
the
Gauchos
on
the
Argentinian
Pampas,
which
cemented
his
membership
of
Magnum
in
1959.
Burri
was
26.
(Gauchos
was
eventually
published
-‐
with
an
introduction
by
Borges
–
in
1968.)
He
achieved
international
recognition
with
the
publication
of
Die
Deutschen
(The
Germans)
in
1962.
It
is
a
powerful
portrait
of
a
changing
nation
in
the
immediate
aftermath
of
World
War
Two,
in
the
style
of
Robert
Frank’s
Americans,
at
a
time
when
the
memory
of
the
war
and
the
consequences
of
defeat
were
still
evident
and
recovery
just
beginning.
The
story
of
René
Burri’s
career
is
the
story
of
the
second
half
of
the
twentieth
century.
His
curiosity
and
humanity
has
gained
him
almost
unrestricted
access
to
the
major
events
and
personalities
of
the
last
sixty
years,
and
his
work
is
a
fascinatingly
personal
account
of
these
men
and
women.
He
is
admired
and
respected
by
his
peers
for
his
telling
and
cerebral
photo-‐essays
and
social
commentaries,
which
are
made
with
a
characteristically
sympathetic
and
human
eye.
During
the
1960s
and
70s,
Burri
traveled
extensively
in
Europe,
The
Middle
East,
Cuba,
Indochina
and
Brazil,
where
he
captured
the
iconic
image
Four
Men
on
a
Rooftop,
Sao
Paulo,
(1960)
here
featured.
Caught
in
a
moment
of
contemplation
or
even
conspiracy,
four
men
walk
purposefully
across
a
rooftop,
high
above
the
traffic-‐choked
streets
below.
Moving
easily
between
the
elegance
of
Picasso's
Paris,
the
terror
of
Franco's
Spain
and
the
ravished
killing-‐fields
of
war-‐torn
Vietnam:
Burri
photographed
such
eminent
figures
as
Picasso,
Yves
Klein,
Alberto
Giacometti
and
Le
Corbusier
and
reported
from
Vietnam
and
Cambodia
in
the
1970s,
and
Beirut
in
the
1980s.
In
1963
René
Burri
shot
the
career-‐defining
portrait
of
Che
Guevara
in
Havana;
the
image
captures
the
young
Che
chomping
defiantly
on
a
cigar
at
the
Ministry
of
Industry,
which
became
one
of
the
most
recognizable
and
most
iconic
images
of
the
twentieth
century.
Presented
at
ATLAS
Gallery
in
its
enlarged
format
this
portrait
takes
on
a
monumental,
statue-‐like
quality.
Other
large-‐scale
works
include
landscapes
in
Abu
Dhabi,
Florida
and
the
effortlessly
serene
Summer
Palace,
Beijing
(1964).
For
further
information
contact:
francesca@atlasgallery.com
or
+44
(0)
20
7224
4192