Willi Ruge

Willi Ruge This moment was decisive 1931 Vintage, gelatin silver print high gloss. 13.9 x 20.2 cm (16.3 x 21.6 cm). With the 'Underwood & Underwood' agency stamp on the reverse, inscribed in pencil in someone else's hand, and an insert on agency paper fixed at the bottom edge with detailed, typewritten accompanying text by Willy Ruge and the stamp "NOT RELEASED FOR PUBLICATION UNTIL AUG 9, 1931". - Mounted under passe-partout. Literature Ute Eskildsen/Felix Hoffmann (eds.), Willi Ruge. Fotografien 1919 - 1953, Ausst.kat. C/O Berlin, Göttingen 2017, p. 73 with ill.; Sarah Hermanson Meister (ed.), Masterworks of Modern Photography 1900 - 1940. The Thomas Walther Collection of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Ausst.kat. Museo d'arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano et al, Milan et al. 2021, p. 138 with ill. The two press prints here (lot 572/573) are from the series "Ich fotografiere mich beim Absprung mit dem Fallschirm", with which Willi Ruge achieved his greatest success as a photojournalist. Ruge, himself a passionate pilot, documented his own parachute jump from a propeller plane and turned it into a spectacular photo reportage that was published worldwide. The photographer also contributed the humorous texts accompanying the pictures. The following description of the moment depicted (Lot 572) was written by Ruge - as he put it - still under the immediate impression of the experience: "It seemed to me rather as if a house servant had suddenly grabbed me by the collar of my skirt and lifted me up. This moment was decisive, because the pulling proved that the parachute had unfolded and its braking effect had already occurred." (cf. Eskildsen/Hoffmann, 2017, op. cit., p. 214) The second photograph (Lot 573) was taken by the pilot of the accompanying aircraft who documented Ruge's foolhardy jump. The shot was integrated by Ruge into his reportage, as were shots of the spectators watching the spectacle, including Ruge's worried wife with baby in her arms.