René Burri

René Burri studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. He worked as a documentary cameraman until joining the "Magnum" photography agency in 1955 and becoming a photojournalist. He published his first book of photographic works “Die Deutschen” (The Germans) in 1962, in which the Swiss artist documented the divided country both from the perspective of the GDR in the east, and the BDR in the west. He took his famous portrait of the revolutionary leader Che Guevara with a cigar in 1963. Burri was married to the widow of his colleague Werner Bischof until her death in 1986.