Marc Riboud (; 24 June 1923 – 30 August 2016) was a French photographer, best known for his extensive reports on the Far East: ''The Three Banners of China'', ''Face of North Vietnam'', ''Visions of China'', and ''In China''.
Early life and education
Riboud was born in
Saint-Genis-Laval
Saint-Genis-Laval () is a commune in the metropolis of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France.
The Lyon Observatory is located in this commune.
History
Saint-Genis-Laval draws its name from Saint Genis or Genest, a Roman act ...
and went to the
lycée
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...
in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
. He photographed his first picture in 1937, using his father's Vest Pocket
Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
camera. As a young man during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he was active in the
French Resistance
The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...
, from 1943 to 1945. After the war, he studied engineering at the
École Centrale de Lyon from 1945 to 1948.
Career
Until 1951 Riboud worked as an engineer in Lyon factories, but took a week-long picture-taking vacation, inspiring him to become a photographer.
[SK Josefburg Studio biography](_blank)
He moved to Paris where he met
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...
,
Robert Capa
Robert Capa (born Endre Ernő Friedmann; October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954) was a Hungarian-American war photographer and photojournalist as well as the companion and professional partner of photographer Gerda Taro. He is considered by some to ...
, and
David Seymour
David Seymour may refer to:
* David Seymour (English politician) (died 1557/58), 14th-century Member of Parliament (MP) for Wareham and Great Bedwyn
*David Seymour (New Zealand politician) (born 1983), leader of the ACT Party
*David Seymour (photo ...
, the founders of
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David Seymour (photographer), Davi ...
. By 1953 he was a member of the organization. His ability to capture fleeting moments in life through powerful compositions was already apparent, and this skill was to serve him well for decades to come.
Over the next several decades, Riboud traveled around the world. In 1957, he was one of the first European photographers to go to China, and in 1968, 1972, and 1976, Riboud made several
reportages on
North Vietnam. Later he traveled all over the world, but mostly in Asia, Africa, the U.S. and Japan. Riboud has been witness to the atrocities of war (photographing from both the Vietnam and the American sides of the Vietnam War), and the apparent degradation of a culture repressed from within (China during the years of chairman
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
's
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
). In contrast, he has captured the graces of daily life, set in sun-drenched facets of the globe (
Fès
Fez or Fes (; ar, فاس, fās; zgh, ⴼⵉⵣⴰⵣ, fizaz; french: Fès) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fès-Meknès administrative region. It is the second largest city in Morocco, with a population of 1.11 mi ...
,
Angkor,
Acapulco
Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...
,
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages[Bénarès
Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.
*
*
*
* The city has a syncretic tra ...](_blank)
, Shaanxi), and the lyricism of child's play in everyday Paris. In 1979 Riboud left the Magnum agency.
Riboud's photographs have appeared in numerous magazines, including ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'', ''Géo'', ''
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
'', ''
Paris Match'', and ''
Stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
''. He twice won the
Overseas Press Club Award, received the
Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Sony World Photography Awards and has had major retrospective exhibitions at the
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the
International Center of Photography in New York.
Riboud was made an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Photographic Society
The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...
in 1998.
Photography
One of Riboud's best known images is ''Eiffel Tower Painter'', taken in Paris in 1953. It depicts a man painting the tower, posed like a dancer, perched between the metal armature of the tower. Below him, Paris emerges from the photographic haze. Lone figures appear frequently in Riboud's images. In ''Ankara'', a central figure is silhouetted against an industrial background, whereas in ''France'', a man lies in a field. The vertical composition emphasizes the landscape, the trees, sky, water and blowing grass, all of which surround but do not overpower the human element.
An image taken by Riboud on 21 October 1967, entitled "
The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet," is among the most celebrated anti-war pictures. Shot in Washington, D.C. where thousands of anti-war activists had gathered in front of
the Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...
to protest against
America's involvement in Vietnam, the picture shows a young girl, Jan Rose Kasmir, with a flower in her hands and a kindly gaze in her eyes, standing in front of several rifle-wielding soldiers stationed to block the protesters. Riboud said of the photo, "She was just talking, trying to catch the eye of the soldiers, maybe trying to have a dialogue with them. I had the feeling the soldiers were more afraid of her than she was of the bayonets."
In contrast to the images in his photo essay, ''A Journey to North Vietnam'' (1969), Riboud says in the accompanying interview:
"My impression is that the country's leaders will not allow the slightest relaxation of the population at large
..it is almost as if
..they are anxious to forestall the great unknown – peace."
[''Newsweek,'' 20 October 1969: 35] In the same ''Newsweek'' article, he expanded further in his observations on life in
North Vietnam:
I was astonished, for example, at the decidedly gay atmosphere in Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
's Reunification Park on a Sunday afternoon ..I honestly did not have the impression they were discussing socialism
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
or the 'American aggressors' ..I saw quite a few patriotic posters crudely 'improved' with erotic graffiti and sketches.
There is a divide between what is photographed (or published) and what Riboud had to say by way of his interview. Commenting on this in 1970, the author
Geoffrey Wolff Geoffrey Wolff (born 1937) is an American novelist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer. Among his honors and recognition are the Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1994) and fellowships of the National Endowment fo ...
wrote:
Riboud's photographs illustrate the proposition. The French photographer has been to North Vietnam twice ..and he is most friendly, on the evidence of his pictures, to the people and the institutions he found there. His photographs are of happy faces, ..An Air Force ace illustrates how he shot the American "air pirates" from the sky ..Who knows the truth about these places?
American, revolutionary political
Rap Metal
Rap metal is a subgenre of rap rock and alternative metal music which combines hip hop with heavy metal. It usually consists of heavy metal guitar riffs, funk metal elements, rapped vocals and sometimes turntables.
History Origins and early ...
band,
Rage Against the Machine used two of Riboud's photographs for their second single "
Bullet in the Head
''Bullet in the Head'' () is a 1990 Hong Kong action film written, produced, edited and directed by John Woo, and starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tony Leung, Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee and Simon Yam. The film incorporates elements of the action, ...
". Both photographs carry strong political and social messages, but are very different. The front cover is a picture of American school children pledging allegiance to the 'flag' (
Stars and Stripes) in a classroom; the back cover picture, is of a young (probably
Vietnamese) boy, who is pointing a pistol, while soldiers stand on parade in the background. It is unclear who or what the boy is aiming at and whether the gun is real or a toy.
Marriage and family
In 1961 Riboud married the American sculptor
Barbara Chase, who was living in Paris.
[Smith, Jessie C. 1991. "Barbara Chase Riboud," in ''Notable Black American Women,'' p. 178.(Gale Cengage)] They had two children.
She became well known for her novel, ''
Sally Hemings'' (1979), which earned critical acclaim and became a bestseller. They divorced before 1981.
He later married Catherine Chaine, a journalist and author.
Riboud died in Paris on 30 August 2016, at the age of 93.
Publications
*''Women of Japan''. Andre Deutch, 1959.
*''Visions of China, Photographs 1957–1980''. Pantheon Books, 1981.
*''Three Banners of China''. Macmillan, 1966.
*''Photographs at Home and Abroad''. Abrams, 2000.
*''Photo Poche 37: Marc Riboud''
*''Marc Riboud: photos choisies 1953–1985''. Paris: Musee d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1985.
*''Marc Riboud: l'embarras du choix''
*''Marc Riboud: Journal''. by Claude Roy. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988.
*''Marc Riboud in China: Forty Years of Photography'' New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997.
*''Marc Riboud: 50 Years of Photography'' by Annick Cojean. Flammarion, 2004.
*''Grands Travaux à Paris: 1981–1995'' with Seloua Luste Boulbina and Alexis Riboud. France: La Dispute, 2007.
*''Le Bon Usage du monde'' by Claude Roy. France: Éditions Rencontre, 1963.
*''Istanbul, 1950–2000''. With Jean-Claude Guillebaut. France: Imprimerie Nationale, 2003.
*''Huang Shan''
*''The Face of North Vietnam''. With Philippe Devilliers. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1970.
*''Chine: Instantanés de Voyage''. France: Arthaud, 1980.
*''Bangkok'' with William Warren. Weatherhill/Serasia, 1976.
*''Angkor: The Serenity of Buddhism''. London: Thames and Hudson, 1993.
*''Angkor: Sérénité bouddhique''. France: Institut Geographique National, 1998.
Exhibitions
*1958 ''Photographs From The Museum Collection'' (
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, New York)
*1959 ''30th Anniversary Special Installation – Towards the "New" Museum'' (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
*1960 ''Photographs for Collectors'' (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
*1963 ''Marc Riboud'' (The Art Institute, Chicago)
*1964 ''
Edward Steichen
Edward Jean Steichen (March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter, and curator, renowned as one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of photography.
Steichen was credited with tr ...
Photography Center'' (Museum of Modern Art, New York)
*1966 ''China'' (Institute of Contemporary Art, London)
*1967 ''China'' (The Photographers Gallery, London)
*1974 ''Marc Riboud'' (The Photographers Gallery, London)
*1975 ''Nord Vietnam'' (
Rote Fabrik, Zurich)
*1975 ''Against the Odds by Marc Riboud'' (International Center of Photography, NY)
*1977 ''Marc Riboud'' (Galerie Municipale, Toulouse)
*1978 ''Marc Riboud'' (Galerie Agathe Gaillard, Paris)
*1981 ''From China & Elsewhere'' (Gallery Photograph, NY)
*1981 ''China'' (The Photographers Gallery, London)
*1982 ''China'' (Galerie Photo, Geneva)
*1984 ''Hommage à Marc Riboud'' (Centre d'action culturelle and 'China' Galerie ACPA, Bordeaux)
*1985 ''Rétrospective'' (Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville, Paris)
*1988 ''Marc Riboud'' (Galerie Agathe Gaillard, Paris)
*1988 ''Marc Riboud'' (International Center of Photography, NY)
*1996 ''China, Travelling Exhibition'' (Centre National de Photographie, Paris – Barbican, London – International Center of Photography, NY)
*2004 ''Rétrospective'' (Maison européenne de la Photographie, Paris)
*2008 ''Les Inédits de Marc Riboud'' (Atelier Publimod, Paris)
*2008 ''Home on the Road'' (Howard Greenburg, New York)
*2009 ''Marc Riboud. L'Instinct de l'instant. 50 Years of Photography'' (
Musée de la Vie romantique, Paris)
*2009 ''China 1954–2004'' (
Month of Photography Asia
Month of Photography Asia (also known as MOPA and MOPAsia) was an international festival of photography in Singapore from 2002 to 2011.
The festival promoted photography both as an art form and as a creative industry. Each year, Month of Photog ...
, Singapore)
*2010 ''Krishna Riboud's Garden'' (Musée des Arts asiatiques—Guimet, Paris)
*2014 ''Portraits of the 20th Century'' (Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica)
*2015 ''Marc Riboud'' (Salon Galic Croatian Association of Visual Artists, Croatia)
*2018 ''The World of Marc Riboud'' (Leica Gallery Tokyo, Tokyo)
References
Sources
*
*
*
External links
*
Magnum Photos portfolio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riboud, Marc
1923 births
2016 deaths
People from Saint-Genis-Laval
Magnum photographers
French photojournalists
Photography in China
Photography in Japan
Vietnam War photographers
French Resistance members
École Centrale de Lyon alumni