Magnum Editions: River Li, Yangshuo, 1981

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Burt Glinn served in the United States Army before studying literature at Harvard University, where he edited and photographed for the Harvard Crimson college newspaper. Glinn worked as a freelancer before becoming an associate member of Magnum in 1951, along with Eve Arnold and Dennis Stock – the first Americans to join the young photo agency. Versatile and technically brilliant, Glinn would become one of Magnum’s great commercial photographers, leaving his mark on the industry over the course of a career that spanned more than five decades. Pictured here, the sky sets a dramatic backdrop as locals of the Yangshuo area in China traverse the River Li.