Stefan Ruiz

Through a lens that falls somewhere between portraiture, landscape photography, and travel documentary, the photographer Stefan Ruiz examines international subcultures that reflect social disparities and overlooked cultural niches. Ruiz is known for his striking portraits—stylistically inspired by Flemish art and the Renaissance—that depict a vast array of diverse subjects: his work includes images of his own family, celebrities such as Liza Minelli and James Brown, Rwandan refugees, Cuban mental asylum patients, and Texas cowgirls. These photographs alternate between spare, white backgrounds and the raw environment of the particular subject. In his series The Factory of Dreams, Ruiz captures a decade of Mexican soap opera stars posed against their shows' stage sets.

Ruiz has exhibited his work widely at institutions such as the Center for Contemporary Art and Architecture in Stockholm and the Musee d'Art Contemporain in Lyon, among others.