René Burri
Brief Conversations

I had the great privilege to meet and talk with photographer René Burri, while he made playful watercolor drawings and signed copies of his 450-page retrospective of black-and-white photography, at the recent Paris Photo 2004.

Click on the links below to hear snippets of our brief conversation.

Burri talking about his current projects, including another retrospective book, this one featuring his color photography (with a friendly jab at his colleague Martin Parr).

Burri's beginnings as a photographer more than 50 years ago.

Burri on digital photography: “It’s fantastic, but it’s not a freebie for anything. You still have to have this (he points to his eyes), and this (points to his heart), and feet.” Notice that he has a mini digital camera in his coat pocket, with its cord around his neck, always ready to capture one more...

On a recent photo trip to China, he revisited the site of this spectacular photo he made 40 years earlier — an abstract of wilted lotus blossoms bending into their reflections on Kunning Lake near Beijing.



I am grateful for his kindness and the exhuberant and playful energy he shared with all of us that day,

— Jim Casper