Willy Ronis retrató como nadie la post-guerra en París y Provenza.
Nació en París, el 14 de agosto de 1910. El padre de Ronis fue un refugiado judío en Odessa, que abrió un estudio de fotografía en Montmartre y su madre era una refugiada de Lituania que impartía clases de piano. La primera inquietud de Ronis se encaminó hacia la música, soñando con ser compositor. Volviendo del servicio militar en 1932, sus clases de violín tuvieron que pararse porque su padre padecía un cáncer que hizo que Ronis tuviera que hacerse cargo del negocio familiar.
Los trabajos de los fotógrafos, Alfred Stieglitz y Ansel Adams inspiraron a Ronis para empezar a explorar el mundo de la fotografía. Cuado su padre murió, en 1949, Ronis cerró el estudio y se unió a la agencia Rapho, con Ergy Landau, Brassaï, y Robert Doisneau.
Ronis se convirtió en el primer fotógrafo francés en trabajar para la revista LIFE. En 1953, Edward Steichen incluyó a Ronis, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Izis, y Brassaï en una exposición en el Museo de Arte Moderno, el MoMA titulada Five French Photographers (Cinco fotógrafos franceses). En 1955, Ronis fue incluido en la exposición The Family of Man (La Familia de los Hombres). La Bienal de Venecia premió a Ronis con la medalla de oro en 1957. Ronis comenzó a enseñar en los 50, y llegó a dar lecciones en la Escuela de Bellas Artes de Avignon, Aix-en-Provence y Saint Charles, Marsella. En 1979 Ronis fue galardonado con el Gran Premio de las Artes y las Letras en Fotografía por el Ministro de Cultura.
La esposa de Ronis, Anne Marie fue la modelo de su famosa foto de 1949, Desnudo Provenzal. La foto, mostrando a Anne Marie lavándose en un lavabo con una jarra en el suelo y una ventana abierta desde la que el espectador puede ver el jardín, denota su habilidad para transportarnos las sensaciones de la vida provenzal. Más tarde, Ronis fotografiaría a Anne Marie sufriendo el mal de Alzheimer, sentada sola en una sala del hospital. Anne Marie murió en 1991.
Ronis vivió y trabajó en París donde falleció el 12 de septiembre de 2009 a los 99 años de edad. Aunque dejó la fotografía en 2001, cuando comenzó a necesitar un bastón para moverse, lo que le dificultó desplazarse con la cámara, terminó su vida redactando libros para la compañía de publicidad Taschen.
Willy Ronis, the best-known of whose work shows life in post-war Paris and Provence.
Was born in Paris; his father was a Jewish refugee from Odessa, and his mother was a refugee from Lithuania, both escaped from the pogroms. His father opened a photography studio in Montmartre, and his mother gave piano lessons. The boy's early interest was music and he hoped to become a composer. Returning from compulsory military service in 1932, his violin studies were put on hold because his father's cancer required Ronis to take over the family portrait business; Ronis' passion for music has been observed in his photographs. His father died in 1936, whereupon the business collapsed and Ronis went freelance, his first photographs being published in Regards. In 1937 he met David Szymin and Robert Capa, and did his first work for Plaisir de France; in 1938–39 he reported on a strike at Citroën and traveled in the Balkans. With Cartier-Bresson, Ronis belonged to Association des Écrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires, and remained a man of the left.
The work of photographers, Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams inspired Ronis to begin exploring photography. After his father's death, in 1936, Ronis closed the studio and joined the photo agency Rapho, with Brassaï, Robert Doisneau and Ergy Landau.
Ronis became the first French photographer to work for Life. In 1953, Edward Steichen included Ronis, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Izis, and Brassaï in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art titled Five French Photographers. In 1955, Ronis was included in the Family of Man exhibition. The Venice Biennale awarded him its Gold Medal in 1957. Ronis began teaching in the 1950s, and taught at the School of Fine Arts in Avignon, Aix-en-Provence and Saint Charles, Marseilles. In 1979 he was awarded the Grand Prix des Arts et Lettres for Photography by the Minister for Culture. Ronis won the Prix Nadar in 1981 for his photobook, Sur le fil du hasard.
Ronis' wife, the Communist militant painter Marie-Anne Lansiaux (1910–91), was the subject of his well-known 1936 photograph, Nu provençal (Provençal nude). The photograph, taken in a house that he and Anne Marie had just bought in Gordes, showed Marie-Anne washing at a basin with a water pitcher on the floor and an open window through which the viewer can see a garden, this is noted for its ability to convey an easy feeling of Provençal life. The photograph was a "huge success"; Ronis would comment, "The destiny of this image, published constantly around the world, still astonishes me." Ronis lived in Provence from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Late in her life, Ronis photographed Marie-Anne suffering from Alzheimer's disease, sitting alone in a park surrounded by autumn trees.
Ronis' nudes and fashion work (for Vogue and Le Jardin des modes) show his appreciation for natural beauty; meanwhile, he remained a principled news photographer, resigning from Rapho for a twenty-five year period when he objected to the hostile captioning by the New York Times to his photograph of a strike.
Despite stiff competition from Robert Doisneau and others, the Oxford Companion to the Photograph terms Ronis "the photographer of Paris par excellence".
Ronis continued to live and work in Paris, although he stopped photography in 2001, since he required a cane to walk and could not move around with his camera. He also worked on books for the Taschen publishing company.
Ronis died at age 99, on September 12, 2009.
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1 comentario:
Me quedo pasmado ante tanto talento. Un artista único, inigualable, tal vez, el fotógrafo más grande; otros actuales, engalanados de glamour, deberían contemplar, admirar y aprender.
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