213 - Ian Berry

Ian Berry was born in 1934 in Lancashire, England. He made his reputation in South Africa, where he worked for the Daily Mail and later for Drum magazine. He was the only photographer to document the massacre at Sharpeville in 1960, and his photographs were used in the trial to prove the victims' innocence.Henri Cartier-Bresson invited Ian to join Magnum in 1962, when he was based in Paris. He moved to London in 1964 to become the first contract photographer for the Observer Magazine. Since then assignments have taken him around the world: he has documented Russia's invasion of Czechoslovakia; conflicts in Israel, Ireland, Vietnam and the Congo; famine in Ethiopia; and apartheid in South Africa. The major body of work produced in South Africa is represented in two of his books: Black and Whites: L'Afrique du Sud and Living Apart (1996).<br /><br />Important editorial assignments have included work for National Geographic, Fortune, Stern, Geo, national Sunday magazines, Esquire, Paris-Match and Life. Berry has also reported on the political and social transformations in China and the former USSR. Recent projects have involved tracing the route of the Silk Road through Turkey, Iran and southern Central Asia to northern China for Conde Nast Traveler, photographing Berlin for a Stern supplement, the Three Gorges Dam project in China for the Telegraph Magazine, Greenland for a book on climate control and child slavery in Africa.Ian’s recent book, Water (GOST Books, 2022), brings together many classic images from Ian’s extensive archive with material shot over the course of 15 years travelling the globe to document the inextricable links between landscape, life and water. This new book brings together a selection of the resulting images which collectively tell the story of man’s complex relationship with water — at a time when climate change demonstrates just how precariously water and life are intertwined. In episode 213, Ian discusses, among other things:How all the pics in Water came to be used as B&WHow the project came aboutHow he got into photographyHow he came to be the only photographer at the Sharpeville MassacreThe importance of luckGetting into Magnum after a tea with HCB and a disasterous first meetingChanges in Magnum over the years - and photography in generalThe controversy over David Allan Harvey and the subsequent action by MagnumEverything being ‘too woke’Learining from other people and looking at contact sheets Referenced:Stuart SmithAbbasRoger MaddenDrum MagazineTom HopkinsonThe Sharpeville MassacreMichele Chevalier (Visa)Marc RiboudReni BurriHenri Cartier BressonBurt GlinnPeter DenchDavid Allan HarveySteve McCurry