Les pyramides imaginaires de René Burri

Next to the photography books that simply show a series of images or properly unreel a biography, her we have a surprising one. It starts with the fascination René Burri (1933-2014) had for the triangle motif – born it seems from the Swiss peaks of his childhood and consolidated by the vision of Egypt’s pyramids in 1958. A few notes in German on Magnum header paper (reproduced on the frontispiece) confirm this obsession. We then follow the revival of this form for half a century. We see pyramid everywhere! In the gravel of zen gardens, in a broken window, in the Flatiron Building seen from the sky, in tepees on Route 66, in the architectures of Barragán and Le Corbusier, or in a pavement in Havana. Sometimes they are less obvious but that adds to the interest of this book, as it forces us to look and not only to see.

• Les pyramides imaginaires de René Burri, published by Textuel, 128 p., €35