Bruno Barbey (13 February 1941 – 9 November 2020) was a Moroccan-born French photographer. Throughout his four-decade career he traveled across five continents, photographing many wars.
Life and work
Barbey was born in Morocco. His father was a diplomat.[1] In 1959/1960 studied photography and graphic arts at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers in Vevey, Switzerland.[2] During the 1960s he was commissioned to photograph European and African countries by Editions Rencontre in Lausanne. In 1964 Barbey began a relationship with Magnum Photos, becoming an Associate member in 1966, and a full member in 1968, at which time he was photographing student riots in Paris.[2] He eventually served as Magnum vice president for Europe in 1978 and 1979 and from 1992 to 1995 as President of Magnum International.
He spent 1979 to 1981 photographing Poland, resulting in his book Poland. He rejected the label of 'war photographer', although he became renown for photographing conflicts as well as unusual, beautiful images.[1] He covered civil wars in Nigeria, Vietnam, the Middle East, Cambodia, Northern Ireland, Iraq, Kuwait and the liberation war in Bangladesh.[3] From 2005 Barbey pursued, among other work, a project on Istanbul.[4]
