Great events and ordinary people in the lens of the genius of reportage shooting Marc Ribout

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Henri Cartier-Bresson described Marc Ribat as "a born geometer with an eye like a compass." Many of the photographer's photographs have become illustrations in photojournalism textbooks. For sixty years, through the lens of the camera of a French photographer, the whole world has followed the most important events, sometimes inaccessible to the general public.

1. Altitude work

2. Mountain range in Anhui province

Marc Ribout was born in 1923 to witness monstrous crimes and great historical breakdowns in his prime. In fact, someone from a family of bankers could probably have lived quite comfortably taking over the reins of government and business skills, but he first learned to be an engineer, and only after that photography became a profession for him.

3. Soviet youth

He left his native Lyon for Paris, where he met other masters, whose names would become synonyms of the era - Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Invited two years later to the prestigious agency Magnum Photos they founded, Mark could not have imagined that in twenty years he would become its president.

4. Afghan-Pakistani border

The first photo that glorified Riba all over the world was the image of a painter who carelessly, as if doing a frivolous dance step, paints the structure of the Eiffel Tower without any insurance; his gaze is dreamy and pensive, and far below, in a misty haze, the outlines of Parisian streets appear. Subsequently, Ribou said that the photographer should shoot just as easily and freely. The photo was bought by Life magazine, finally securing the reputation of a novice author.

5. Sellafield

The next iconic photo was taken in the United States at an anti-war demonstration near the walls of the Pentagon - Ribu saw a girl who came out on the bayonets of the military police cordon and began talking to soldiers, sending a freshly cut flower towards the sharp metal. This photo became a symbol of anti-militarism, to this day remains one of the most recognizable photographs of the 20th century. Later, Ribu would film the equally resonant Watergate scandal, Churchill's last performance, but his heart would make him repeatedly return to the East - to China, Japan and Vietnam.

6. Japan, 1958

Ribu traveled to the most remote and "inaccessible" countries and regions for various reasons. The photographer stated that life is in full swing everywhere, even where shells are bursting nearby. This is where the lion's share of the master's success lies - he was not only a professional reportage photography, but could easily capture a portrait, street photography or landscape without losing inspiration, and therefore quality.

7. Forbidden City

Ribu filmed not only Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong or Ho Chi Minh, not only impersonal demonstrations or rallies - he filmed, first of all, people. Therefore, the crowd of protesters in his photographs, while remaining integral, strives to crumble into a gallery of characteristic portraits, and the artist himself, having removed completely non-poster leaders, hurries to turn his lens towards the playing children

8. Cuban revolutionary

Ribu, surprised himself, surprised the world, noting that the external rigidity of the regimes of China, Vietnam and the USSR does not prevent their citizens from enjoying life, loving, and striving for knowledge. The contrast between great historical events and the lives of "unremarkable" people who, sometimes without realizing this, are not only their witnesses, but also their participants, creates a unique atmosphere of Marc Riboux's photographs.

9. Nun

Throughout his creative career, the photographer has published more than thirty books, published from 1959 to 1998. Photo exhibitions of Ribu were held both in the most prestigious exhibition centers in the world, such as the New York Museum of Modern Art, and in exotic at first glance, but closely related to the career of the master in Singapore, Tokyo, China. Ribou's pictures are unmistakably recognized not only by photography theorists, but also by ordinary people, which serves as an unconditional sign of quality, its long-term guarantee, and recognition of the highest skill.