Josef Ritler

Josef Ritler (born 1939 in Naters, canton of Valais), also known as "Sepp Ritler" or "Seppi Ritler", is a Swiss journalist, who worked as a writer and photographer for the newspaper Blick for 40 years. Today, he works as a video journalist for the central Swiss television station Tele Tell.

Life
Ritlers was born in the canton of Valais. He went to the local primary school in his place of birth, Naters. Because of bullying, he was forced to change to a school in Brig. In his free time he often assisted his father in his work, who was a foreman, wanting to follow his father's profession when older. During his apprenticeship as a mason, he learnt that he had an allergy to cement and had to quit the course.

But he discovered his passion for photography and began photographing everything that crossed his way. He moved to Lucerne as it was one of the few locations where photography apprenticeships were offered. When Ritler accidentally photographed a film set producing an army propaganda film for the Swiss national exhibition "Expo 64", the paper Blick became interested in hiring Ritler as a journalist. The chief editor of the time, Werner Schollenberger, invited Ritler to write for the paper. Ritler was hesitant due to the reputation of Blick as a tabloid. He eventually accepted the job offer for one year only initially. Eventually he would work for Blick for forty years.

The journalist managed to become something of an intermediary between the more conservative people of central Switzerland and the modern Zurich team of Blick. Ritler's character attracted a considerably amount of curiosity and trouble; on occasion he was chased by farmers with pitchforks, his tyres were slit, he received death threats and for a while was only able to work under police protection.

One of Ritler's attributes is his curiosity for the "people behind the headlines", such as in the case of the chainsaw vigilante where Ritler was keen to find out more about the person behind the story.

Ritler was only interested in real news. Because of that, he often held interviews after conferences, not during. When the Kapellbrücke was on fire, Ritler was there.

At the age of 64, Ritler was retired early (one year before the regular Swiss retirement age) and had to leave Blick. He had a number of job offers and finally accepted the offer of Tele Tell, where he is now working as a video-journalist.

For the first time, Ritler is working for TV. Within this young team, Ritler has a reputation for being a "total professional who knows central Switzerland like no one else" and who has an "eye for the perfect picture".

Awards

 * 1997 "Swiss Press Foto"
 * 2003 "Ringier Medienpreis"
 * 2007 Lifetime-Award Schweizerischer Berufsfotografenverband