Famous French photographer Willy Ronis, a contemporary of Robert Doisneau and Henri Cartier-Bresson, died at the age of 99. Ronis, who originally aspired to be a composer, first got into photography when his father fell ill and he had to take over the family photo studio. After his father’s death, however, he gave up studio photography and became a photojournalist. He worked for a number of prestigious publications including Regards, Plaisir de France and Life. His work, along with that of Doisneau, Cartier-Bresson, Izis and Brassaï, was showcased at the Museum of Modern Art in New Yor City in 1953, as part of an exhibition entitled, somewhat misleadingly, “Five French Photographers” (neither Izis nor Brassaï was in fact French, though both worked in France at the time). Ronis rceived a number of awards, including the Gold Medal of the Venice Biennale (1957) and the Grand Prix des Arts et Lettres (1979). While predominantly a photojournalist and a master of street photography, Willy Ronis was also noted for his nudes and fashion shots. Upon hearing from his death, the office of France’s President Nicolas Sárközy issued a communiqué saying, “Willy Ronis has immortalised for us and future generations a popular and poetic France”.

Website: Obituary in The New York Times

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