René Burri: Impossible Reminiscences

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René Burri, Amalfi Italy, 1966
René Burri, Amalfi Italy, 1966© René Burri, Courtesy of Phaidon

Whilst Rene Burri is renowned for his black and white imagery, his latest book presents glorious colour photographs taken during his travels across the world.

Last year, acclaimed Swiss photographer René Burri candidly discussed his collaboration with Comme des Garçons and Rei Kawakubo. This year sees the release of an extraordinary book entitled Impossible Reminiscences. Whilst Burri is renowned for his black and white imagery, the book presents glorious colour photographs taken during his travels across the world. Since the mid-1950s, Burri has taken photographs in black and white and colour, describing it as "living two lives".

There are two striking aspects of the book: its pace and arrangement by colour – moving from lush green to deep red tones – and the great breadth of the subject matter. He experienced significant political momevements travelling across East Germany and the USSR before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, and throughout China and Cuba over several decades. Here, AnOther presents a selection of works with fascinating personal recollections from Burri.

"[At Cape Canaveral] I became their artist in residence. I witnessed the building of the Space Shuttle Columbia, the first orbiter to be launched into space."

"Das Island is an Island in the Persian Gulf that produces oil and gas. There were around 3,000 male workers (not a single woman) on the island, from all over the world. This picture is of a Japanese team that worked for a gas company. Their living conditions were quite spartan, but here they were taking time out by playing golf."

"The San Cristobal Stables outside Mexico City, were designed in 1967-8 by Luis Barragan with Andres Casillas. The swimming pool wasn't for people, it was for horses."

René Burri: Impossible Reminiscences is published by Phaidon and is available now.

Text by Laura Bradley