In 1973, Bruno Barbey accompanied Georges Pompidou on the first trip of a President of the French Republic to New China. The first Magnum photographer to capture China in colour, he used his favourite film, Kodachrome, to record scenes of Chinese life during this period. Since then, he has made many trips throughout China, leaving an exceptional and unique testimony to the movements and changes in the country.
Barbey, born in Morocco, was a Franco-Swiss artist. He studied photography and graphic arts at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers, in Vevey, Switzerland. He was president of the Magnum International agency from 1992 to 1995. For five decades, Bruno Barbey crossed five continents. His work has been published in major international magazines and has been the subject of around thirty books. Barbey passed away at the age of 79 in November 2020.
