To mark this decade-long milestone, the festival is placing a special emphasis on strengthening its international presence through exhibitions, professional programs, lectures, portfolio reviews, and workshops.

Best known globally for his portraits of a cigar-smoking Che Guevara, René Burri was a quintessential photojournalist during the golden age of illustrated magazines, reporting on the most significant events of the late 20th century.

He joined Magnum Photos in 1955, becoming a full member in 1959. Over a career spanning six decades, he traveled through Europe, the Middle East, North and South America, Japan, and China. He was present at the fall of the Berlin Wall, captured the student protests in Tiananmen Square, and documented the devastation of war in Beirut.

However, the exhibition titled Utopia offers a fresh perspective on Burri’s multifaceted oeuvre, focusing on how the century’s major transformations were expressed through the visual language of modern architecture.

In this sense, the selection serves as a tribute to architecture: Burri’s artistic eye captured numerous modernist icons, from Le Corbusier’s chapel in Ronchamp to Oscar Niemeyer’s ministerial buildings in Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.

Major publications like Paris Match gave significant space to these series, alongside his portraits of artists; this exhibition specifically highlights the world-famous creators of modern architecture.

Through nearly one hundred photographs, visitors can experience Burri’s unique, expressive documentary style, where images of human creation and destruction serve as bittersweet witnesses to the past century's metamorphosis.

The exhibition is a collaboration between Magnum Photos, Műcsarnok, and the Budapest Photo Festival. The original Utopia concept was realized in 2004 by Hans-Michael Koetzle and René Burri.

About René Burri (1933–2014)

Born in Zurich, René Burri studied at the School of Applied Arts under the legendary Hans Finsler and Alfred Willimann. After a year as a cameraman for Walt Disney Switzerland in 1954, he produced his first major photo essay on the teaching methods for the deaf and mute, which served as his application to Magnum Photos.

Between 1956 and 1958, he undertook assignments across Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. He also spent six months in Latin America documenting the lives of the last gauchos. After becoming a full Magnum member in 1959, he began his famous series Die Deutschen (The Germans).

His work appeared in the world's leading publications, including Life, Look, Stern, Paris Match, The Sunday Times, The New York Times, and Du. In 1963, while working in Cuba, he famously met Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

His career also included filmmaking, such as the 1965 documentary The Two Faces of China and a 1972 film on Jean Tinguely. Significant retrospectives of his work have been held at the MEP in Paris, the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, and various institutions across Europe and South America.

As Hans-Michael Koetzle noted: "Burri was a witness to history, yet he did not simply take 'press photos.' Thanks to his sharp eye, he found images that serve as relevant metaphors for the state of our world."

More:
budapestphotofestival.hu / Műcsarnok

Photo: budapestphotofestival.hu

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