Photography

Taken individually, the portraits capture a particular time and place in our modern world. They are, as Sontag would say, a contemporary way of "imprisoning reality." Taken all together, however, the portraits are something different. Not the narcissistic commodity that a selfie represents nor a violation as Sontag may have put it, but a mere capturing of the soul in a particular moment. … [Read more...] about How portrait photography can rock your reality

Now Pamplona is aiming to become famous for something other than bulls. Taking its cue from the renaissance that the Guggenheim brought to hitherto dismal Bilbao, it has employed a famous architect to build a museum of modern art. The Museo Universidad de Navarra was opened this week by King Felipe VI, who called it “a great advance in culture and education”. … [Read more...] about Pamplona hoping for Guggenheim effect with new modern art museum

Turning Points, Magnum’s square print sale, in collaboration with The Everyday Projects, runs from Monday 6 April at 9am EST to Sunday 12 April at 6pm EST. Signed or estate-stamped, museum-quality, 6x6in prints from more than 100 visual artists will be available for $100 (£80) each … [Read more...] about The big picture: Rene Burri’s shadows of doubt

A truly gritty city For perspective, I examine some photographs taken by John Darwell in Sheffield in the late 1980s. Lord, was it really so grim? Fond as I am of the city of my birth, I think perhaps that it was. Tinned-up pubs, abandoned steel mills, skinhead graffiti: I admire the chiaroscuro of back alleys and jagged windows and feel at once marginally better (life is a cycle) and very much worse (the slog that lies ahead). … [Read more...] about An imaginary walk, Tennyson’s great escape and the joy of small things

In Cuba on a commission for Look magazine in 1963, he took an iconic image of the Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara in his military fatigues, backlit against a window, looking over the photographer’s head. Afterwards, Burri described how an angry Che was pacing his tiny office like “a caged tiger” during the interview. While “hectoring” the female reporter and chomping on his cigar, Guevara suddenly looked Burri straight in the eye and told him “If I catch up with your friend Andy, I’ll cut his throat” (while slowly drawing his finger across his neck). Andy was a fellow Magnum photographer, Andrew Saint-George, who had filed reports for the CIA from the Sierra Maestra. … [Read more...] about René Burri obituary