Born in Zürich, Switzerland, he studied photography with Hans Finsler at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Zürich from 1932 to 1936. He began contributing regularly to the Swiss magazine Du in 1941. In 1945 he travelled throughout Europe photographing the devastation of World War Two and became a full member of Magnum in 1949. From 1951 he photographed throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. He was killed in a road accident in the Peruvian Andes in 1954. His archives are maintained by Magnum and by his sons in Zürich.