The Swiss photographer René Burri (1933 – 2014) was one of the great photojournalists of the 20th century. From 1955 (a full member from 1959), the photographer, filmmaker, and painter was a member of Magnum, and traveled all over the world on behalf of well-known international magazines. The focus of the exhibition at Kunsthalle Erfurt is his best-known and perhaps most important body of work, ‘The Germans’.
In 1957, Burri, whose mother came from a village near Freiburg, began photographing the neighbors. He then accompanied developments in East and West Germany for forty years. In 1962 the first version of his book ‘The Germans’ was published with texts by Hans Magnus Enzensberger – a milestone in photojournalism. With his camera, Burri was looking for another Germany, that of writers and thinkers.
René Burri
In Germany
19 November 2023 – 11 February 2024
Kunsthalle Erfurt
Fischmarkt 7
99084 Erfurt
kunstmuseen.erfurt.de/kunsthalle
René Burri Am Völkerschlachtdenkmal, Leipzig, Ostdeutschland, 1964 aus der Serie Die Deutschen Bromsilbergelatine-Abzug, Vintage Print © René Burri / Magnum Photos Fondation René Burri / Courtesy Photo Elysée
René Burri Volksschule, München, Westdeutschland, 1962 aus der Serie Die Deutschen Bromsilbergelatine-Abzug, Vintage Print © René Burri / Magnum Photos Fondation René Burri / Courtesy Photo Elysée
René Burri Ostberlin, Ostdeutschland, 1964, aus der Serie Die Deutschen Bromsilbergelatine-Abzug, Vintage Print © René Burri / Magnum Photos Fondation René Burri / Courtesy Photo Elysée
René Burri Ostberlin, Ostdeutschland, 1959 aus der Serie Die Deutschen Bromsilbergelatine-Abzug, Vintage Print © René Burri / Magnum Photos Fondation René Burri / Courtesy Photo Elysée
