I’ve always had great affinity for Willy Ronis’ photography. His work is so full of spontaneity and vibrance. Ronis was born in Paris in 1910 and shot the everyday lives of his fellow Parisians throughout the century. He primarily shot with a Rolleiflex and rangefinder (possibly Leica?). I’ve included a few of my personal favorites in this post.

I was recently reading an old PDN article on Willy Ronis and was struck by his approach to taking a photograph:

Ronis developed and honed his eye over the almost 80 years since his father gave him a Vest Pocket Kodak for his 16th birthday. His guiding principles always relied on what he has called “balancing on the high wire of chance.” Despite this flirtation with the unexpected, there are, as Ronis acknowledges, a very small number of carefully composed images amongst his best-known work. But they are hugely outnumbered by those images made [in the moment]—plucked from the stream of everyday life.

I’ve said before that we as photographers have a hard time embracing chaos and letting the moment be bigger than our personal assertions. Ronis used the idea of chaos for his benefit and relished living on the ‘high wire’. He knew that his most interesting images were captured patiently, without direction. I find great inspiration in this idea and continue to connect with photographs where personal interference is minimal.