René Burri: Traversées
Magnum Gallery in Paris presents a new curation of black-and-white images from René Burri’s most prolific years, between 1950 and 1971.
Magnum Gallery in Paris presents its latest exhibition, Traversées, a retrospective of René Burri’s photographs from his vast archive. Featuring 30 prints and spanning two decades, Traversées — meaning crossings — not only conveys the Swiss photographer’s geographical passages, but his attention to what permeates the human experience and the ever-evolving passage of time.
Organized by country, the exhibition showcases a selection of black-and-white images from Burri’s travels in Europe, South America, Cuba, China, and the U.S. from 1950 to 1971. Highlighting both his acclaimed and lesser-known images, Traversées explores Burri’s perspective of cities and cultures during periods of rapid social transformation, and his careful interplay between architecture, form and street photography.
Born in Zurich in 1933, Burri studied at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts. While still a student at just 17 years old, Burri ventured to Paris, attuning his eye to people’s subtle gestures in their built environment. Shedding light on some of these earliest works, Traversées reveals his instinctive visual language in the early 1950s, already imbued with movement, a soft humor, and an alert curiosity.
In 1957, two years after becoming an associate of Magnum, 24-year-old Burri began documenting postwar Germany, a divided country grappling with a new political upheaval after the Soviet creation of the DDR. Documenting life in both East and West Germany before and after the construction of the Berlin Wall, his images record a crucial period in the nation’s history; its shifting political landscape and deepening social ruptures.
Across Burri’s extensive career, he witnessed some of the most memorable moments in the 20th century, such as the unveiling of Oscar Niemeyer’s modern capital, Brasilia, in 1960, and also captured emblematic figures of the era, such as Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader, Che Guevara. As versatile as he was creatively driven, Burri yearned to capture the transience of what we build, the places we experience and the eras we inhabit.
“Burri explored the world with an attentive eye, documenting the cities, cultures, and social transformations that shape our societies,” says Gallery Director Clémence Vichard-Larroque.
“While architecture is one of the central themes of his work, his photographs of buildings are never mere documents: they tell stories of human ambitions, changing times, and the history inscribed in stone and concrete. He placed great importance on geometry, light, and structure, but his true subject was always human presence: passers-by, workers, inhabitants, and everyday gestures. From the clean lines of Berlin to the monumental forms of Brasília, he reveals architecture as a reflection of human aspirations and emotions, and travel as a way of gaining a deeper understanding of the world.”
Traversées will be on view at the Magnum Gallery at 2 impasse Delaunay 75011, until December 12, 2026.
Works exhibited are available to acquire. For inquiries, please contact the gallery staff directly or email gallery@magnumphotos.com.
