Rene Burri, a Swiss photographer best known for his iconic black and white portraits of Communist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and painter Pablo Picasso, has died. He was 81.
Magnum Photos, the agency of which he had been a long-time member, confirmed Burri died in Zurich Monday of cancer.
"Not only was he one of the great post-war photographers, he was also one of the most generous people I have had the privilege to meet," Martin Parr, the president of Magnum Photos, said in a statement. "His contribution to Magnum and his unrivalled ability to tell stories and entertain us over this time will be part of his enormous legacy."
Born in Zurich in 1933, Burri was just a teenager when in 1946 he witnessed a visit to Switzerland by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Borrowing his father's camera he took a picture of Churchill standing in an open-top car, the roadside crowds a blur in contrast with the strong-jawed British leader.
After his studies, Burri embarked on a photo documentary of a school for deaf-mute children in Zurich. Titled 'Touch of Music for the Deaf' it was published in Life magazine, when Burri was 23.
Burri frequently photographed artists, including sculptor Alberto Giacometti and the architect Le Corbusier. An invitation to dine with Picasso in 1957 resulted in a series of intimate portraits of the painter.
He also traveled widely, including to the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, where during a visit to Cuba in 1963 Burri shot his famous picture of a cigar-chomping Che, seemingly pausing for thought during an interview.
Burri is survived by his second wife Clotilde Blanc, their son, and two children from an earlier marriage.
California governor signs law to protect children from social media addiction
California will make it illegal for social media platforms to knowingly provide addictive feeds to children without parental consent beginning in 2027 under a new law Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Friday.
California follows New York state, which passed a law earlier this year allowing parents to block their kids from getting social media posts suggested by a platform's algorithm. Utah has passed laws in recent years aimed at limiting children's access to social media, but they have faced challenges in court.
The California law will take effect in a state home to some of the largest technology companies in the world. Similar proposals have failed to pass in recent years, but Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law in 2022 barring online platforms from using users' personal information in ways that could harm children. It is part of a growing push in states across the country to try to address the impacts of social media on the well-being of children.
"Every parent knows the harm social media addiction can inflict on their children — isolation from human contact, stress and anxiety, and endless hours wasted late into the night," Newsom said in a statement. "With this bill, California is helping protect children and teenagers from purposely designed features that feed these destructive habits."
The law bans platforms from sending notifications without permission from parents to minors between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m., and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, when children are typically in school. The legislation also makes platforms set children's accounts to private by default.
Opponents of the legislation say it could inadvertently prevent adults from accessing content if they cannot verify their... Read More