Lot 529 D

“A bruised face and bruised shin, but… a few good shots. On the whole: more luck that sense…” (note 1), so commented Willi Ruge (1892 – 1961) on the pictures of his spectacular photo reportage 'Ich fotografiere mich beim Absturz mit dem Fallschirm'. First printed in a May 1931 edition of 'Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung' together with a self-composed text, it was to become the reportage with which the photographer also celebrated his greatest international success: Publication in 'The Illustrated London News' (June 1931) was followed a few weeks later by New York 'Time' magazine as well as two further US American journals, and appeared in the mid-1930s in 'Weekly Illustrated London' (cf. fig. 1-3). The vintage print offered for sale originally came from the archive of the Argentinian weekly paper 'Caras y Caretas' (1898 - 1941), which published the series under the title 'Por primera vez, en el mundo, un fotógrafo se lanza con su cámera en un paracaídas' in September 1931. (note 2) On the reverse of the print is a paper label of 'Fotoaktuell' which was owned by Willi Ruge and through which he distributed his photographs internationally.
For Ruge, the subject of this photo report must have been the ideal theme. On the one hand, it combined his two great passions: that of flying – still a schoolboy, he had built two gliders himself and obtained his pilot’s licence in 1916 – and that of his profession as photojournalist. Moreover, specialised in aerial photography and praised in a 1930 article as the “most daring press photographer” (note 3) of the time, Ruge was able to fully live out his love of adventure as well as his blatant penchant for self-portrayal. As the protagonist of his reportage, he is no longer the photographer operating outside the event in its objective documentation, but makes himself and his subjective feelings the motif.
The layout of the 'Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung' was the result of careful image direction focused completely on tension and emotion: the photo of the wife gazing anxiously up at the sky with her son in her arms, born only a few months earlier, is juxtaposed with a picture taken by Ruge’s colleague from a second plane at the moment of his jump; the crowning glory is a photo showing the daredevil hero embracing his relieved sweetheart after landing.
The most impressive pictures from the series, however, are undoubtedly the ‘self-photos’ taken with a ‘specially constructed narrow film camera with automatic shutter’ (note 4) which show the face of the photographer in close-up. The strong black and white contrasts heighten the dramatic effect of the face which, in our shot, stands out against the suburban buildings of Berlin discernible in the background. Ruge’s tense facial expression with his mouth open as if screaming contrasts strangely with the inscription added to the picture later by Ruge: “During the fall: ‘I almost did not have a sense of falling, of speed, and the danger’” (note 5). Photography speaks a different language here because of its strong, internal-pictorial dynamics.The image can be interpreted today as an allegory of an era that was characterised by the fascination for technical progress, speed, and optical sensation.
A vintage print identical to our motif is currently on display in the noteworthy exhibition 'Masterworks of Modern Photography 1900 – 1940. The Thomas Walther Collection at The Museum of Modern Art, New York', with stops in Lugano, Paris and Turin. This shot, of which to our current knowledge only the above-mentioned print in the Museum of Modern Art is known, is offered for the first time at auction.

We would like to thank Ute Eskildsen, Essen, and Sophie Hackett, Toronto, for helpful information.


Notes:
1. Willi Ruge, Ich fotografiere mich beim Absturz mit dem Fallschirm, in: Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, no. 21, 24.5.1931, here quoted in: Ute Eskildsen/Felix Hoffmann (ed.), Willi Ruge. Fotografien 1919 – 1953, exhib.cat. C/O Berlin, Göttingen 2017, p. 245f.
2. Caras y Caretas, Buenos Aires, no. 1721, 26.09.1931.
3. Quoted in: Ute Eskildsen, Fotoaktuell – Willi Ruge. Abenteuer für die Presse, in: Eskildsen/Hoffmann 2017, p. 196.
4. Eskildsen/Hoffmann 2017, p. 199.
5. Eskildsen/Hoffmann 2017, p. 214.