
Acapulco, Mexico
<p>A photojournalist known for his images of Asia, Marc Riboud was a member of Magnum, the photography agency founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson and others to maintain artistic control of their images. In his work, he maintained a sympathy for the laborer and the gesture of the everyday, arguing, “Photography cannot change the world, but it can show the world, especially when it is changing.” This photograph of a Mexican fisherman taking a siesta with his chicken was one of more than 20 of Riboud’s photographs that Hugh Edwards acquired during his tenure. In 1964 he organized a one-person show of Riboud’s work, noting in the press release that the photographer “shows us humanity as anonymous beings to whom all of us are related.”</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1959
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image/paper: 17.1 × 25.8 cm (6 3/4 × 10 3/16 in.); Mount: 45.7 × 35.7 cm (18 × 14 1/16 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Marc Riboud
Artist

Photography
Marc Riboud was a French photographer whose black-and-white images documented political upheaval, cultural transformation, and intimate human moments across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East from the 1950s onward. Working primarily in 35mm film, he developed a visual approach that balanced journalistic precision with a painter's attention to geometry and light. His photographs of the Vietnam War, Chinese Cultural Revolution, and daily life in remote regions appeared in Magnum Photos publications and major international exhibitions. Riboud's work exemplifies postwar humanist photography, combining unflinching documentation with formal subtlety.
Full artist profile →More
More by Marc Riboud
Looking through the Pyramid of the Louvre, Paris
1988 · Gelatin silver print
"Faces of Britain"
1963 · Gelatin silver print
Nigeria
1963 · Gelatin silver print
Couples Dancing, Ghana
1962 · Gelatin silver print
Moscow
1962 · Gelatin silver print
Erasmus Ransford Tawiah Madjitey, the Police Commissioner of Ghana
1962 · Gelatin silver print
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Marc Riboud
- Year
- 1959
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image/paper: 17.1 × 25.8 cm (6 3/4 × 10 3/16 in.); Mount: 45.7 × 35.7 cm (18 × 14 1/16 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1959-103981
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified





