Willy Ronis | |
---|---|
Born |
Paris, France |
August 14, 1910
Died | September 12, 2009 Paris, France |
(aged 99)
Occupation | Photographer |
Willy Ronis (French: [wili ʁɔnis]; August 14, 1910 – September 12, 2009) was a French photographer. His best-known work shows life in post-war Paris and Provence.
Ronis was born in Paris; his father, Emmanuel Ronis, was a Jewish refugee from Odessa, and his mother, Ida Gluckmann, 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. Ronis' passion for music has been observed in his photographs.
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. The work of photographers, Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams inspired Ronis to begin exploring photography. His father died in 1936, whereupon Ronis sold the business and set up as a freelance photographer, his first work being published in Regards.
In 1937 he met David Seymour 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 Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ronis belonged to Association des Écrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires, and remained a man of the left. In 1946 Ronis joined the photo agency Rapho, with Brassaï, Robert Doisneau and Ergy Landau. Ronis became the first French photographer to work for Life.