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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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