René Burri - obituary - Telegraph René Burri was born on April 9 1933 in Zurich. He took his first important photograph, aged 13, of Winston Churchill driving past him on a local street in an open-topped car. He studied at Zurich's School of Applied Arts from 1949 to 1953, and on leaving worked as an assistant cameraman for the Swiss arm of Walt Disney Films. In 1956 Burri joined Magnum Photos. The pioneering agency was founded in 1947 by a small group of photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, who described the cooperative as "a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually." Burri fitted in perfectly. His first photo-essay was picked up by Time magazine. Che Guevera by René Burri (René Burri/Magnum Photos) He travelled widely and won commissions from Paris-Match, Stern and The New York Times. His pictures captured all of human life, from gauchos on horseback to John F Kennedy's funeral. The geometric post-war structures of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro informed many of his best landscapes, while his work with artists and authors (Le Corbusier in his atelier; Georges Simenon out walking) taught him sensitivity: "You must not come at it like a bulldozer." Burri photographed South Vietnamese troops in action in the Mekong Delta and the building of the Berlin Wall. "Every time I walked away after having a gun held to my head, I thought, you've been lucky one more time," he said. In 1963, having turned down an opportunity five years earlier, he went to Cuba to photograph Castro and Guevara. While there he learnt how the latter became head of the national bank. "One of Castro's aides asked: 'Is there an economist in the room?" " recalled Burri. To everyone's surprise, Che stuck up his hand. Because they were all in awe of him, they voted him governor of the bank. It turns out Che had misheard the question. He thought the guy had asked: 'Is there a Communist in the room?" " Pablo Picasso in Provence by René Burri (René Burri/Magnum Photos) Burri never discovered what Guevara thought of his famous picture. Other subjects were more forthcoming. In particular, he struck up a bond with Pablo Picasso . "For me Picasso was the ultimate man," said Burri. He taught me that photography is all about how you approach an image. What you do and what you don't do. He inspired me to go beyond what you think is in front of you. Working in film, Burri produced documentaries on subjects including China, the Six-Day War and the artist Jean Tinguely. He also experimented with collage works. Burri was elected chairman of Magnum France in 1982 and an honorary fellow of The Royal Photographic Society in 2002. His many books include a retrospective, René Burri Photographs (2012), and René Burri: Impossible Reminiscences (2013). He is survived by his second wife, Clotilde Blanc, their son, and by two children of his first marriage. René Burri, born April 9 1933, died October 20 2014