Max Ruiz
Born in Buenos Aires in 1950, Max Ruiz grew up between two cultures. His Argentinean father was a theater director and his mother served in the French embassy in France. As a teenager, his studies focused on the arts at the Fine Arts School and Pan American of Arts, both in Buenos Aires. In the 1970s, as the military junta was about to take power in Argentina, Ruiz says, “it was a violent period. Daily life was punctuated by raids of various secret police, the informants, the inflation. The future seemed stuck there.” So in 1974, he flew to France to study film at the École Supérieure d’Études Cinématographiques (ESEC) in Paris. In addition to his photography, Ruiz also directs music videos.
As a teenager, he met the great photographer Rolando Paiva. “When I saw his work, I realized for the first time that photography could do more than just represent reality. It could construct another one. At the time, I thought that my expression would be painting. I loved and admired it, but I wanted to escape what seemed to me to be fetishism of the unique work. That’s why I finally choose photography. Artists are often confused and selfish, desperately seeking the admiration and compromises they reject at the same time. I've never felt comfortable in the role as an artist. As a photographer, I make fables” says Ruiz. “I like providing the opportunity to share visions. I believe that some of these visions are given to me. They pass through me just like water passes from the roots through the leaves of a tree. I do what I do to be surprised.”
Over the course of 20 years, his work has been exhibited all over Europe, South America, and in United States, including Centre National de la Photographie (Paris), Les Rencontres d’Arles (Arles), and FotoFest (Houston).