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ROBERT YARNALL RITCHIE

 

AMERICAN CYANAMID 1940
ALLIED CHEMICAL & DYE 1939
SORENSEN OF THE ROUGE APRIL 1940
THE WORKING FRONT March 1942
THE CONVERSION OF FORRY LAUCKS
THE MERRY YOUNG MEN OF STEEL MARCH 1940
AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE 1951 (S)
CELOTEX:HOUSES MADE FROM SUGAR CANE
CURTISS-WRIGHT, WARRIOR, SEPTEMBER 1938
IRON ORE DILEMMA, DECEMBER 1945
THE PANAMA CANAL, JANUARY 1941
HOW MANY SHIPS HOW SOON? JULY 1941
VULTEE: UP FROM NOWHERE, SEPTEMBER 1941
FROM THE WIND TUNNELS AT LANGLEY, MARCH 1941
THE GARAND SEMI-AUTOMATIC RIFLE

 

ROBERT YARNELL RITCHIE ( 1908 - 1984) is well served by archives and scholars but I suspect his reputation is not as high as it deserves to be. He approached the medium as a hobby, then as an earner, achieving his pilot's licence in 1928. His sense of adventure and technical proficiency made him one of the most successful commercial photographers in America. He worked for advertising companies, for manufacturers (annual reports)and for LIFE magazine. Yet I would claim that FORTUNE seems to me to have consistently offered him his best shop window, and particularly in 1941 (see menu above). On location for the magazine in Columbia he began making films, the total of which rose to 300 in his lifetime, later in conjunction with his son, Chip. I have added links to various archives and sources in the Curtiss-Wright screen.His archive is held by the Southern Methodist University.

Richie often expressed a personal preference for making images of the Oil Industry. "There’s drama in steel, but there’s more romance in oil," he said, "oil has so many different angles to it as an industry. Oil really has a story to tell in pictures."

 

 

 

article by Ralph Steiner 1951

 

 

 

 

 

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