Photograph, gelatin silver 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>
Chicago Illinois USA 1971
Presented by Pierre Brahm 2015
bayonet
Chicago, Naval Station Great Lakes
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
clothing and personal items
countries and continents
documentary
emotions, concepts and ideas
formal qualities
helicopter
helmet
history
landscape
military
military
objects
photographic
places
silhouette
sky
society
soldier
transport: air
uniform / kit
USA, Illinois
Vietnam War, 1964-75
weapons
work and occupations
<p><span>Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1971 </span>1971, printed 2014, is a black and white photograph by the Swiss photographer René Burri. On the left-hand side of the image, the head and shoulders of a soldier are silhouetted against the sky, the face invisible beneath the helmet which reflects a bright sun. The bayonet of the rifle slung on the soldier’s back points upwards, and over his left shoulder nine helicopters approach from a distance. The atmosphere of the photograph is one of threat and impending destruction; the lighting transforms the soldier into a faceless instrument of war like the inbound helicopters behind him. From the title, Burri most likely took the photograph at Naval Station Great Lakes, the only training centre near Chicago, during the training of reinforcements for the Vietnam War.</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver
Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1971
image: 351 × 522 mm
Presented by Pierre Brahm 2015
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1971 </i>1971, printed 2014, is a black and white photograph by the Swiss photographer René Burri. On the left-hand side of the image, the head and shoulders of a soldier are silhouetted against the sky, the face invisible beneath the helmet which reflects a bright sun. The bayonet of the rifle slung on the soldier’s back points upwards, and over his left shoulder nine helicopters approach from a distance. The atmosphere of the photograph is one of threat and impending destruction; the lighting transforms the soldier into a faceless instrument of war like the inbound helicopters behind him. From the title, Burri most likely took the photograph at Naval Station Great Lakes, the only training centre near Chicago, during the training of reinforcements for the Vietnam War. </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.</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
bayonet Chicago, Naval Station Great Lakes cities, towns, villages (non-UK) clothing and personal items countries and continents documentary emotions, concepts and ideas formal qualities helicopter helmet history landscape military military objects photographic places silhouette sky society soldier transport: air uniform / kit USA, Illinois Vietnam War, 1964-75 weapons work and occupations