Interview with Chris Ruiz
#1 Please introduce yourself
My name is Chris Ruiz, I live in berlin, germany. I’m 45 years old and travelling and photography is my passion.
#2 How did you get interested in photography?
Next to my passion to photography I’m a musician too and I’d been on tour through a lot of different countries. I felt bad to be in such beautiful places and not taking reasonable pics. So I bought my first camera, a Nikon D40 changed to a D80 just few months later. At first I just wanted to keep photographs as memories of touring. But after a while I felt I wanted to do more than just take simple pictures. So I started to learn and it’s still a progress. Today I work with the Nikon D800 and a Ricoh GR.
#3 Do you have an artistic/photographic background?
No, I am a self-taught photographer. I just had a school course in analog photography decades ago.
#4 Which artist/photographer inspired your art?
A lot. Not just photographers. But to name a few, I adore the works of Stephan Vanfleteren, Richard Avedon, Josef Hoflehner, Michael Kenna and Cartier-Bresson of course. I also like the work of Phillipe Marchand with his beautiful Bretagne photographies. Writers like Kafka or Hesse or even movies and music inspires me too sometimes.
#5 How much preparation do you put into taking a photograph?
It depends, but it can take a lot of preparation. It starts to google the places where I want to go next. I’m reading travel-guides and travelblogs if necessary, checking weather forecast and how I can reach it by bus or train. The most time I’m travelling by train and buses, so some parts are difficult to reach. If I’m finally there, I take a few pics with the same parameters. Just to be safe, clouds and lights can change fast…But some pictures just happen very spontaneously too.
#6 Which places have been your favourite shooting sites so far and why?
France so far. It’s such a beautiful Country with so many different faces. Normandy, Brittany, Provence or loir area with his beautiful castles, just to name a few. I like old historical cities with his mediaeval houses and you find a lot in France. I really love to travel there and I’d been a lot. I’d also started to discover Germany again, it has a lot to offer too.
#7 What do you do in your life besides photography?
Besides I still have to do with photography in some part. I shoot music bands and people too. I also shot a music video for a band just few month ago. Beside that I’m working on new material for my own music projects, to release a next album in the nearer future. But art sometimes doesn’t fill much your wallet, so I still work in part time as a caregiver.
#8 What future plans do you have? What projects would you like to accomplish?
Next I go to Italy, I will travel some cities with my wife. She is travelling with me most time and has a lot of patience with me when I am waiting minute for minute for a long exposure again, a good way to say „thank you!“ Later the year I’m doing some trips to german places and I will be with a photography stall on a art market here in Berlin and I finally planning a exhibition.
Website: www.chrisruiz.de