To give some idea of Willy Ronis's passion for the mountains, it's worth noting that in 1992 - aged 82 - he signed up for his first paraglide on skis. To give a further measure of the man, three years later he took a prachute jump with a freefall of 1500km.

This was a far cry from the sickly child who was first sent to the mountains, with the help of a youth charity, to improve his health. He wasn't at all sporty. In fact he was described as very pale, with no appetite. In 1926 he arrived in the medieval village of Les Avanchers, at an altitude of 1050m. It was love at first sight. "The discovery of the mountain, for me, was sheer amazement'.

At this time winter sports were scarcely invented. Of thirty four hotels listed at that time in Chamonix, only five stayed open for the Winter. Most people were content with sledging and sleigh rides, and Willy himself was happy to return to Paris with a tan and a huge appetite. In the Easter of 1928 though, Willy and his friends were introduced to vintage wooden skis, with leather straps for bindings. They didn't think twice, strapping the skis to their shoes as best they could, and setting off down the mountain.

“We didn’t know how to stop or turn”, remembers Ronis. “We chose the gently sloping runs to avoid falling. We learned as we went along but it was very exciting. We joked a lot. One day when I had fixed them too tightly, my skis flew off down the slope taking my shoes with them. I recovered them in my socks 300m lower down in the stream.” After the “amazement” of the mountain, comes the obsession with skiing, a “revelation”. “The majority of us developed a real passion for the snow” says Willy Ronis.

From then on, he headed for the mountains whenever possible. He managed to go just before his military service, and regularly escapes during the four years when he took over the running of his father's photographic studio. He hated this commercial work for the 'petty bourgeois', but had no choice - out of respect for his Father, and to help support his family. The only thing that stopped him going mad during this depressing time was his trips to the mountain once or twice a year.

Willy's Father died in 1936, and he decided to give up the studio. On the day of the 14th July parade in Paris he took his camera and declared himself 'a great reporter', and began photographing the event. He subsequently met Robert Capa, who in turn named him 'special correspondant' in his first published report. Willy never saw the newspaper itself, as at that moment the war began.

Willy Ronis was reunited with Robert Capa once again in 1939, this time in a field of snow on the slopes of Montjoux, in Megeve, where the two friends photograph each other. In the meantime he had become a professional photographer, and managed to reconcile work with pleasure in the form of regular commissions from the SNCF and the tourist board. Needless to say, the subjects taken at altitude seem to reveal the greatest collaboration between photographer and client. A number of photographs signed by Willy Ronis have decorated the carriages of the national society for French railways for a long time now.

Willy Ronis was with Robert Capa in Megeve because a friend from the regiment, also crazy about the mountains, had just set up a ski school in the village in the Haute-Savoie. He even organised holiday packages including accommodation, ski hire and lessons. It worked well. Even if winter sports remained reserved essentially for a wealthy clientele, they slowly became more accessible. Paid holidays had already been implemented. “And when you’ve got the bug, you don’t think of the cost” says Willy. “ When I didn’t have the money, I was prepared to eat kippers for weeks so as to afford a week in the mountains.”

The mountain photographs by Willy Ronis taken in the 30's allow us to discover a world now disappeared. The photographs show an unspoiled world, free from all the distractions of the modern world. They also show pioneers. Val d’Isere was just a hamlet, cards are played in chalets lit by oil lamps,people ski in golf trousers. As for the fields of snow, they are as new as the first day, without any traces, except at times those of the photographer.
At that time, the top of the mountain was reached with lots of sweat and a bit of help from seal skin, on skis with pointy tips. The first important machine, conceived especially for skiers is the Rochebrune ski lift, inaugurated in Megeve in 1934. In the Vosges and the Jura, they don’t even know ski lifts have been invented. Willy Ronis visited all the snow capped mountain ranges, except the Pyrenees, which were too far away.

After the war, which he spent going along from one job to another, he married. His wife, Marie-Anne, did not share his passion for the Alps. Willy Ronis then limited his journeys away to professional necessities, which were often plentiful. It was to Megeve that he returned in 1952 to promote the new offer from Air France, a weekend flight from Paris to Geneva with coach transfer to several selected resorts. In Paris he hired a model “who could just about get by on a pair of skis”. On Saturday night it was the crowning of Miss Megeve in a nightclub, and the young woman won the crown. “ I was always very sensitive to feminine charm” says Willy.

As nightclubs arrived in ski resorts, things were already starting to change. But Willy and his wife bought themselves an old house in Gordes, in the Luberon, a remote region where a tourist is as rare there today as he was twenty years ago in the alps. From then on they were drawn to the lesser mountains. They explored all of Provence, pushing at times right through to the other side of the Rhone, to the Ardeche or Cevennes. Willy did a bit of skiing on the slopes at Ventoux, on the summit which was as white as snow in the summer as in the winter. Still with his seal’s fur. “ There really should be a lift, down there, no?” Yes, there is one, eight even, in Mount Serein to be precise. Willy Ronis will never go and see. For several years now arthritis has handicapped his sporting legs. He moves with difficulty. He remains reclined on a chaise longue watching whilst others walk, ski, paraglide or parachute by.

So this series is not so much a catalogue of exploits, sporty or photographic, with adventurous or shock tactics, not at all. If Willy Ronis is often associated with the likes of Brassai, Cartier-Bresson, Isis or Doisneau, it is not only because he belongs more or less to the same generation, but above all because he is the last representative of this humanistic photography which he, with others, has elevated to the greatest heights. Even as he photographed at altitude, he remained always at a man’s height. There is nothing out of the ordinary here, not even the majestic landscapes. Just the mountains as they are daily, the way he saw, lived and above all loved for three-quarters of a century.

This text is translated and excerpted from 'Willy Ronis: La Montagne' published by TerreBleu in Paris.

To view a selection of images click here, to see other work by Willy Ronis click here.

You can read a more detailed biography of Willy Ronis's long and distinguished photographic career here.

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