I wish I had more photos of (and by) the Ritter Brothers to post, but there has never been much
to glean from the internet. Fred and William began selling physique photos as early as 1934,
and they did a substantial amount of nude work. We start today's set with
one of those photos I sometimes call "the best of both worlds."
I guess oil was the norm back then, but it works with the Ritters, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteDie Ritter-Brüder, Pioniere die männliche Körperfotografie. :)
ReplyDelete(“)
Les frères Ritter exceptionnels et uniques :)
ReplyDeleteIt seems they disappeared after their fine contributions to artistic physique photography.
I spent quite a bit of time researching them and posted this in December of 2022:
DeleteAlthough I have been able to find quite a few more pictures of and by the Ritter Brothers since I first lamented the lack of such several years ago, details about their later life are scarce. I did find a William A. Ritter the correct age living in Queens on the 1940 whose occupation was shown as a reporter for a credit agency. He had married June Hessener in 1937. By 1950, he had served in World War II and become a construction supervisor. I'm sure this is our man because he was shown as a child on the 1920 census in the same household with a Fred, and the mother's birthplace of Austria carries through. Fred was living at home with the brothers' parents in 1940, working as a Western Union telegraph operator. All this would indicate that the brothers' business had fallen by the wayside by 1940, despite the fact that William answered mail from fans and patrons, as above.