Willy Ronis

The recorded working language is French. Places of work recorded in the authority are Belleville. Employment is recorded with École des beaux-arts d'Avignon. Work by Willy Ronis is recorded in the collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Tate, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Photography Collection. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Legion of Honour, Commander of the National Order of Merit, Lucie Award and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

• Name — Willy Ronis • Born — 14 August 1910 • Birthplace — Paris, France • Died — 12 September 2009 • Place of death — Paris, France • Known for — photography • Spouse — Marie-Anne Lansiaux (m. 1946–1991) • Awards — Venice Biennale (1957) Grand Prix des Arts et Lettres (1979) Prix Nadar (1979)

Ronis was born in Paris to Jewish immigrants. His father, Emmanuel Ronis, was from Odessa, and his mother, Ida Gluckmann, was from Lithuania. His father opened a photography studio in Montmartre, and his mother gave piano lessons. The boy's early interest was music and he hoped to become a composer. Ronis' passion for music has been observed in his photographs. Returning from compulsory military service in 1932, his violin studies were put on hold because his father's cancer required Ronis to take over the family portrait business. The work of the photographers Alfred Stieglitz and Ansel Adams inspired Ronis to begin exploring artistic photography. His father died in 1936, whereupon Ronis sold the business and set up as a freelance photographer, his first work being published in Regards. In 1937 he met David Seymour and Robert Capa, and did his first work for Plaisir de France; in 1938–39 he reported on a strike at Citroën and traveled in the Balkans. With Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ronis belonged to Association des Écrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires, and remained a political leftist. In 1946 Ronis joined the photo agency Rapho, with Brassaï, Robert Doisneau and Ergy Landau, and was instrumental in forming the professional association Le Groupe des XV, and later joined Les 30 x 40, Club Photographique de Paris. Ronis became the first French photographer to work for Life. Ronis' nudes and fashion work (for Vogue and Le Jardin des modes) show his appreciation for natural beauty; meanwhile, he remained a principled news photographer, resigning from Rapho for a 25-year period when he objected to the hostile captioning by The New York Times to his photograph of a strike. Despite stiff competition from Robert Doisneau and others, Ronis was named by the Oxford Companion to the Photograph "the photographer of Paris par excellence". Ronis began teaching in the 1950s, and taught at the School of Fine Arts in Avignon, Aix-en-Provence and Saint Charles, Marseilles. In 1953, Edward Steichen included Ronis, Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Izis, and Brassaï in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art titled Five French Photographers. In 1955, Ronis was included in The Family of Man exhibition. The Venice Biennale awarded him its Gold Medal in 1957. Ronis began teaching in the 1950s, and taught at the School of Fine Arts in Avignon, Aix-en-Provence where he met Pierre-Jean Amar and Saint Charles, Marseilles. In 1979 he was awarded the Grand Prix des Arts et Lettres for Photography by the Minister for Culture. Ronis won the Prix Nadar in 1981 for his photobook, Sur le fil du hasard. Ronis continued to live and work in Paris, although he stopped photography in 2001, since he required a cane to walk and could not move around with his camera. He also worked on books for the publisher Taschen. In 2005–2006 the Paris city hall held Willy Ronis in Paris, a retrospective exhibition of his work, that had more than 500,000 visitors. There was also an exhibition at Rencontres d'Arles festival, Arles, France, in 2009. Ronis died at age 99, on 12 September 2009. In 2005–2006 the Paris city hall held a retrospective exhibition of his work, that had more than 500,000 visitors.

Ronis' wife, the Communist militant painter Marie-Anne Lansiaux (1910–91), was the subject of his well-known 1949 photograph, Nu provençal (Provençal nude). The photograph, taken in a house that Marie-Anne and he had just bought in Gordes, showed Marie-Anne washing at a basin with a water pitcher on the floor and an open window through which the viewer can see a garden, this is noted for its ability to convey an easy feeling of Provençal life. The photograph was a "huge success"; Ronis would comment, "The destiny of this image, published constantly around the world, still astonishes me." Ronis lived in Provence from the 1960s to the 1980s. Late in her life, Ronis photographed Marie-Anne suffering from Alzheimer's disease, sitting alone in a park surrounded by autumn trees.

• Five French Photographers. MoMA, New York. 18 December 1951 - 24 February 1952 • Postwar European Photography. MoMA, New York. 26 May - 23 August 1953 • The Family of Man. MoMA, New York. 24 January - 8 May 1955 • Willy Ronis:Paris. Dina Mitrani Gallery, Miami, Florida. 10 October 2012 - 11 January 2013 • Toujours Paris. Peter Fetterman Gallery, New York. 27 October 2018 - 23 February 2019