Photograph, c-print on paper
Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rene-burri-22358" aria-label="More by René Burri" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">René Burri</a>
Havana Cuba 1987
Presented by Pierre Brahm 2015
actions: processes and functions
adults
architecture
carrying / holding
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
Cuba
decay
documentary
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
fragility
glass
Havana - non-specific
humour
man
materials
motorcycle
objects
people
photographic
places
society
street
townscapes / man-made features
transport: land
universal concepts
<p><span>Havana, Cuba, 1987</span> 1987, printed 2014, is a colour photograph by the Swiss photographer René Burri. It shows two men riding a motorbike down a street lined with aging, dirty stone buildings, both of whom turn to look at the camera as they pass. The man on the back precariously holds a large, square panel of red glass, transparent in areas but painted opaquely in others, between himself and the camera. From the slightly blurred surface of the road, it is likely that Burri was also moving when the image was taken.</p>
paper print photograph c-print
Havana, Cuba, 1987
image: 345 × 510 mm
Presented by Pierre Brahm 2015
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Havana, Cuba, 1987</i> 1987, printed 2014, is a colour photograph by the Swiss photographer René Burri. It shows two men riding a motorbike down a street lined with aging, dirty stone buildings, both of whom turn to look at the camera as they pass. The man on the back precariously holds a large, square panel of red glass, transparent in areas but painted opaquely in others, between himself and the camera. From the slightly blurred surface of the road, it is likely that Burri was also moving when the image was taken. </p>
<p>This image is part of a portfolio of twenty-seven prints (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/burri-inauguration-of-the-chapel-of-notre-dame-du-haut-france-1955-p14301" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14301</span></a>–<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/burri-poster-of-che-guevara-1993-p14327" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P14327</span></a>), selected and compiled by Burri as a cohesive group shortly before his death in 2014. The selection spans his sixty-year career and includes a number of his best known black and white works, as well as a group of lesser-known colour works. The portfolio was printed by Burri in 2014 and this copy is number three in an edition of five plus one artist’s proof. It contains fourteen black and white gelatin silver prints and thirteen colour C-prints, highlighting Burri’s diverse use of light and shadow alongside his experimental use of colour. Although predominantly known for shooting in black and white, Burri often travelled with two cameras, switching between them to capture images in both colour and greyscale. This was a progressive approach at the time, when colour photography was generally only used in advertising or for commercial practices. Burri revisited his archive of colour images later in his career and published the monograph <i>René Burri: Impossible Reminiscences</i> in 2013 as a decisive examination of this work.</p>
<p>Burri is most famous for his work as a member of the photojournalism agency Magnum Photos and the portfolio includes images produced in this context from projects in Brazil, Egypt, Lebanon, East Germany, China and South Korea, as well as an iconic image of Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara taken in Havana in 1963. The young Burri was introduced to Magnum by fellow Swiss photographer Werner Bischof and began working with the agency first as an associate in 1955, before becoming a full member in 1959. His extensive career encompassed a wide variety of photographic practices, including documentary, reportage, street photography and the photo-essay, as well as portraiture, architecture and landscape. He often worked on press assignments and personal projects simultaneously, building a varied portfolio of work in both black and white and colour. Burri’s use of both bird’s eye and worm’s eye views and his attention to the effects of light and shadow created by architectural forms are reminiscent of techniques used by modernist photographers in the early twentieth century.<br/>throughout his career.</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Hans-Michael Koetzle, <i>René Burri Photographs</i>, London 2003.<br/>Hans-Michael Koetzle, <i>René Burri: Impossible Reminiscences</i>, London 2013.</p>
<p>Shoair Mavlian<br/>January 2015<br/>Arthur Goodwin<br/>October 2018</p>
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Summary
2019-01-18T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
actions: processes and functions adults architecture carrying / holding cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents Cuba decay documentary emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities fragility glass Havana - non-specific humour man materials motorcycle objects people photographic places society street townscapes / man-made features transport: land universal concepts