Rene Burri Quotes

#1. A photograph is a moment - when you press the button, it will never come back.

Rene Burri

#2. For me, Picasso was the ultimate man. He taught me that photography is all about how you approach an image: what you do and what you don't do. He inspired me to go beyond what you think is in front of you.

Rene Burri

#3. It took me six years to get close to Picasso. I learnt a lot from him, and he was an absolute genius. He almost became my grandfather at the time. It was like he was a magician or something.

Rene Burri

#4. A digital camera has to be kept in check like a racehorse.

Rene Burri

#5. One of these days, I'm going to publish a book of all the pictures I did not take. It is going to be a huge hit.

Rene Burri

#6. I never had the time or luxury to think about inventing my own colour theory. When colour came, I was interested in expressing things that happened around me in time.

Rene Burri

#7. To some extent, the cult surrounding black-and-white photography is based on nostalgia.

Rene Burri

#8. I suddenly had to chase after my pictures ... Pictures are like taxis during rush hour - if you're not fast enough, someone else will get there first.

Rene Burri

#9. I never thought I would become a photographer.

Rene Burri

#10. Everyone takes pictures, so you need to have your own opinion.

Rene Burri

#11. What counts is putting the intensity that you yourself have experienced into the picture. Otherwise it is just a document.

Rene Burri

#12. Looking back, I didn't have the patience to work in fashion. I like women so much, but I was never qualified to torture them in photo shoots. You have to be really tough and brutal.

Rene Burri

#13. In 1958, a year before the revolution, Magnum wanted to send me to Cuba because they had contacts with the rebels. I'd just spent six months in South America and said 'No', so I missed everything.

Rene Burri

#14. I lived and grew up in the black and white period of photojournalism.

Rene Burri

#15. I grew up in Switzerland, in this kind of rigidity. It was Protestant, and I was rather shy. That influenced me a lot.

Rene Burri

#16. The camera has always been a magic wand for me, giving me access to places where I could try new experiments.

Rene Burri

#17. I think that's the strength of photography - to decide the decisive moment, to click in the moment to come up with a picture that never comes back again.

Rene Burri

#18. If you are truly successful in capturing the pulse of life, then you can speak of a good photograph.

Rene Burri

#19. I witnessed the building of the Space Shuttle Columbia, the first orbiter to be launched into space.

Rene Burri

#20. 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.

Rene Burri

#21. My photography is the result of being there at the right moment.

Rene Burri