Willy Ronis, Paris, France, 1910-2009

French photographer Willy Ronis was well-known for his poetic depictions of life in post-World War II Paris. Like his friend and fellow photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ronis discovered poetic moments amidst the chaos of daily life. Regarding his work, Ronis stated, "I have never looked for the unusual or the scoop. I considered the things that enhanced my life. My deepest emotions have always come from the beauty of the commonplace. In Le Petit Parisien (1952), which is arguably his most well-known photograph, Ronis shows a young French boy running happily down the sidewalk with a baguette under his arm.

 

반응형

Both of his parents were refugees who had fled the persecuting pogrom riots of the Russian Empire when he was born on August 14, 1910 in Paris, France. He started looking at the works of Alfred Stieglitz after being influenced by his father, an amateur photographer who also had a portrait studio. The first French photographer to work for LIFE magazine, Ronis was featured in the landmark "The Family of Man" exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, organized by Edward Steichen, in 1955. The artist passed away in Paris, France, on September 12, 2009, at the age of 99.

Willy Ronis, Paris, France, 1910-2009

Willy Ronis, Paris, France, 1910-2009

Willy Ronis, Paris, France, 1910-2009

Willy Ronis, Paris, France, 1910-2009

Willy Ronis, Paris, France, 1910-2009

Willy Ronis, Paris, France, 1910-2009

Willy Ronis, Paris, France, 1910-2009

Willy Ronis, Paris, France, 1910-2009

 

The New York Times reports that Willy Ronis, a photographer whose lyrical black-and-white images of lovers, bustling streets, and children at play brought a soft but persistent mystique to postwar, working-class Paris, has passed away. He was 89 years old.

 

Like his colleagues Robert Doisneau, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Brassa, Ronis ambled through Paris's streets willing to be discovered by chance, which frequently did. In images that have come to represent Paris, his camera captured a young boy rushing home with a baguette in his arm, lovers gazing out over the city from the Bastille tower, two kids having fun on an empty barge on the Seine, and a woman's legs climbing up a curb on the Place Vendôme.

 

The author of Willy Ronis, which was released by Phaidon in 2001, Paul Ryan, called him "one of the best photographers of his generation." Although he is less well-known than Doisneau and Cartier-Bresson, he has always been considered as a master photographer.

 

728x90

The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, lauded Ronis as "the chronicler of postwar social aspirations and the poet of a simple and joyous life." Ronis was a key role in what came to be known as humanist photography.

---

 

World Sports Photography Awards in 2023

 

E. J. Paprocki, City of Chicago, Illinois, US, ~1971

 

 

Sarah King, Tofino, Canada, Illustrator and visual artist