Willy Ronny used his camera to forever retain the poetic France that belongs to the people.

The sentence in the title comes from former French President Sarkozy’s evaluation of Willy Ronny. Willy Ronny passed away in Paris on September 12, 2009, at the age of 99. French dignitaries expressed their condolences. Sarkozy praised Roney for using his handheld camera to "forever preserve the poetic France that belongs to the people" for generations of French people. Prime Minister Fillon also praised Roney as "the most important witness of the 20th century."

So who is Willy Roney?

Willy Ronis is a famous French photographer. He was born in Paris (9th arrondissement) on August 14, 1910 and died in Paris (20th arrondissement) on September 11, 2009. . His father is a Jewish photographer and his mother is a piano teacher from Lithuania. As a teenager, Ronnie fell in love with music and dreamed of becoming a composer one day. He later joined the army and after demobilization in 1932, Ronnie took over the family photo studio because his father was ill. In 1937, he decided to become an independent news photographer. After his father died of illness in 1949, Ronnie closed the family photo studio, joined Rapho Photography Agency, and began his career as a professional photographer. He photographed a wide range of subjects, including celebrities, industrial reports, advertising, fashion, etc.

Ronny has been engaged in photography for nearly half a century, specializing in photographing the daily life of the French people. His favorite camera is the Leica-FOCA 35mm camera produced in France. He successively taught at many art academies in Paris. In 1953, the works of five French photographers including Roni and Henri Cartier-Bresson were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, New York City; in 1957, Roni won the gold medal at the Venice Biennale; in 1975, following Brassa? Afterwards, he took over as the honorary president of the French Association of Photographers-Journalists-Illustrators; in 1979 he won the Photographic Art Gold Medal from the French Ministry of Education; he was also the first French photojournalist for American Life magazine. Later, he won the Nadar Prize, the French photography award, for his photo album "Along the Line of Destiny". In 1993 Ronnie became a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society. In 2008, he was awarded the French Government’s Officer of the Legion of Honor. Willy Roney's photographs have been featured in special exhibitions in many countries around the world.

Along with Cartier-Bresson, Brassa? and Doisneau, he is considered one of the main photographers of the French Humanistic Photography School (Photographie humaniste fran?aise). His first photographs were taken in 1926 (he got his first camera at the age of 15) and continued until 2002, covering almost the entire 20th century.

Recently there was a special photography exhibition of Willy Ronis in Paris, called "Willy Ronis par Willy Ronis":

Attached below is the relevant information, entrée libre, you don’t need to buy a ticket, if you are interested, don’t miss it!

Willy Roni is a representative figure of French humanist photography. He is famous for his political activities and his street photography, self-portraits, nude photography and cats. The Pavillon Carré de Baudouin nicely retraces Willy Roni's oeuvre by displaying nearly two hundred works, from his early photography to some of his final photographs in France and during his travels abroad.

In 1954, Willy Roni published his first book: Belleville Ménilmontant, a work that was only popular with some people at the time, but is not to be missed today, and this is why it is The first section of the exhibition in District 20. In these places, Ronny mainly photographed the workers and the hard life in this backward area of ??Paris.

This exhibition has two floors. When I went there on Saturday afternoon, there were still a lot of people, mostly French people. This is the first time I went to the exhibition without meeting a single Chinese person. On the first floor is the Belleville Ménilmontant series, and in the stairwell are Ronnie's self-portraits; on the second floor, a small hall displays the nude series, and the other large exhibition hall is a collection of Ronnie's photos taken in Paris, other cities in France and other countries. Series of pictures. Through Ronnie's lens, we can see the Pompidou after the rain fifty years ago, the Bastille, the Eiffel Tower, and we also know that there used to be several phone booths in the Forum des Halles.

The images under Ronny’s lens are very vivid. Even though most of them are things that can be seen or common in daily life, under Ronny’s lens, the “coincidence” of the images and characters will make it more interesting. You exclaimed: "How wonderful!"

Little Boy in Paris, 1952

This photo can be said to be very classic. Even if you don't know Willy Ronny, you You may have seen this photo too. A little boy of about five or six years old, holding a baguette longer than half his body in his left hand, was running on his way home. It looks like a perfect snapshot! But Ronnie said, this is not a candid shot, this is a wonderful photo obtained by giving some small instructions to the performer.

Ronnie stood for a while next to the bakery during peak traffic hours, trying to take a few photos, but none of them were good. He noticed a little boy in the bakery. While waiting in line, the little boy carefully counted the money. Then he explained to the little boy and asked him to hold the bread in his left hand at an angle and run out at an athletic pace. The little boy was too stiff on his first try, but his second try was perfect. Then they went back to the bakery and ate bonbons together.

Christmas, Shops at the Louvre, Place de la Palais, 1954

This one is also quite interesting.

Parade of the Popular Front, Rue Saint-Antoine, little girl wearing a Phrygian hat from the French Revolution, July 14, 1936

What is on-site photography?

It is an alchemy that combines premonition, accident, skill and instinct.

We are going to school, March 15, 1954

Rose Zerner, Javier Citro?n strike, 1938

Belleville Children, under the stairs of Welland Street, 1959

As a humanistic photographer, the most vivid things under the lens of Willy Roney are the individual people. He uses black, white and gray to create a unique "black and white romance". He uses richly layered photography to record street life and daily life in Paris. Ronnie once said: “During the shooting process, the photographer’s subjective consciousness dominates his choices. It can be said that photography is a conscious act.

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