Walter Reuter

Walter Reuter (b. January 4, 1906 - March 20, 2005) was a Mexican photojournalist of German origin. Reuter arrived to Mexico in 1942, after fleeing the rise of the Nazis in Germany, and the defeat of the Republicans in Spain. Having started his career in Europe, he introduced modern photojournalism techniques into Mexico and is best known for his work documenting twenty ethnicities of Mexico's indigenous people. In 1986, the Museo de Arte Moderno held a retrospective of his work and he was a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana. Since his death, a collection of his work has been published and exhibited.

Life

Walter Reuter was born in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. His father drove trolleys and his mother inspected the cars. He lived with his parents in Berlin except from 1914 to 1918, during the First World War, when he was sent to live with relatives in Prussia .

When Reuter was growing up, Berlin was a major cultural center. He did not want to be a photographer, but rather an actor and dancer. He did some performing as a young man, such as in a chorus directed by Georg Gotsch in 1923. To earn money, he worked as a photoengraver, an activity he taught himself, first at Sahm& Co. printing house in 1920 than at Artes Gráficas Büxenstein in 1925. He went to Munich but could not get work, surviving by playing the guitar and accordion. He returned to Berlin in 1931 and bought a 6x9 Contessa Nettel camera and constructed his own enlarger, with the idea of selling the photographs for money. This led to work with other publications, working in Germany and Czechoslovakia .

When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, he sent his wife and young son to France, while he joined the Republican forces against Francisco Franco. In addition to fighting he also covered the war as a correspondent for several wire services and publications. He lost possession of his entire archive twice in his life, once when he fled Germany and again when he fled Spain.

His daughter, Hely Reuter published an eleven volume set of his works called La obra de Walter Reuter: viajero por la libertad, 1906-2005 in 2013, which was exhibited at the 2013 Festival Internacional Cervantino.

In 2005, an annual award for photojournalism in Mexico called the Premio Alemán de Periodismo Walter Reuter was established.