As part of PhotoSaintGermain, a small-scale exhibition of René Burri was given on the banks of the Seine, underneath Musée d’Orsay at Solferino Harbour. I visited a René Burri exhibit in Rotterdam several years ago and was charmed by the discretion of this Swiss artist. Modest, almost invisible, Burri made some of the most famous photographs of the 20th century, like that of a defiant Che Guevara, a cigar between his teeth. He travelled around the world, from Switzerland, to Germany, Japan, Brazil, Cuba, the USA for Magnum and brought back some of the best photographs. He would certainly deserve a large retrospective in Paris or elsewhere to give him the spot he deserves in the Pantheon of the greatest. I particularly enjoyed his Flatiron building from an unusual angle or the pictures he took in a torn Berlin, just after the war. He also took one of the few portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson in 1956…

Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana beach, 1958 ©René Burri/Magnum Photos-Fondation René Burri, courtesy Musée de l’Élysée-Lausanne
Germany, West Berlin, 1957 Interbau exhibition ©René Burri/Magnum Photos-Fondation René Burri, courtesy Musée de l’Élysée-Lausanne
Leipzig railway station, East-Germany, 1993 ©René Burri/Magnum Photos-Fondation René Burri, courtesy Musée de l’Élysée-Lausanne
Daitoku-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan, 1961 ©René Burri/Magnum Photos-Fondation René Burri, courtesy Musée de l’Élysée-Lausanne
Flatiron Building, New-York, USA, 1978 ©René Burri/Magnum Photos-Fondation René Burri, courtesy Musée de l’Élysée-Lausanne