Willy Ronis 1910-2009 RIP

It was with tremendous sadness that I heard yesterday of the death of Willy Ronis, one of the great photographers who have been a tremendous influence on my black and white photography. Ronis was born in Paris on 14 August 1910 to a Jewish photographer father and a Lithuanian piano-teaching mother, and music and photography played a major part throughout his life.

I first heard of Ronis many years ago, but a visit to an exhibition of his work in Oxford had a great influence on my own work. For me his images of French life will always rate up there with Robert Doisneau, and the Oxford Companion to the Photograph describes him as 'the photographer of Paris par excellence'. His wife featured often in his work, and an image of her bathing in front of an open window in a cottage in Provence (taken in 1949) went around the world as a 'classic' amongst monochrome photographs. You can read more about his life, and his passing, here at the Associated Press web site.

Au revoir Willy, you will not be forgotten.