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Critics Pick

In critic's pick, we have asked some of the country's most knowledgeable photography critics to give us their pick for the most exciting new artist emerging in the world of photography.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER: Max Ruiz

THE CRITIC: Corinne Tapia

Portraits

(Click on images for larger versions)

All Images © Max Ruiz,


MAX RUIZ

Not many years ago, during a stay in Martinique, a book on Maroons happened to come into my hands. After reading it, It was as if I was receiving a message from centuries ago: There is no force stronger than the desire to be free. I began to look for them.

While on walks through the Martinique forest, I could feel the weight of their memories, and I began to connect them with my own story. On those journeys, I took pictures like a student taking preparatory notes with no anticipated plans.

In sorting out those images, not knowing what to do with them, I discovered a sign. A figure in the sky in Martinique was telling me: Here we are. I started to work.

Another memory came back to me from oblivion. One day, during my studies in Argentina, I went to see my grandmother Ines and asked her to tell me something about her life and her childhood. She was a secretive person, very reserved, who never talked about herself. As expected, she started saying that she had nothing interesting to tell, but I insisted. My grandmother told me something that she had never revealed to anybody before. Slowly, she told me of her arrival to America.

My nine-year-old grandmother and her parents emigrated from Spain to Brazil, attracted by promises of work and prosperity. They arrived poor, exhausted but confident that Brazil was a land of hope. At the harbor, however, labor traffickers were waiting for them and suddenly they were prisoners of a fazendeiro (farmer). They were slaves. Her father said that they would escape this hell. And so that evening, they fled. "But," grandma added, "they sent people after us." Pursuers. "Within few days, we had reached the border of Argentina and Paraguay. We were almost out of danger," she said. But then, a guard caught them. "My dad," grandmother said without changing her tone, "killed him with a knife." Then he ordered his wife and daughter to go to the Argentinean side. He went in the opposite direction to throw the pursuers off their trail. "We will meet in Argentina," he promised. Nobody ever heard from him again.

This is my story too. Thanks to that great-grandfather, I am free. Bless him. Max Ruiz

MAX RUIZ -BIO

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 informers, inflation. The future seemed stuck there." So in 1974, he flew to France to study film at the Ecole Superieure d'Etudes Cinematographiques (ESEC) in Paris. In addition to his photography, Ruiz also directs music videos.

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).


CURATORIAL STATEMENT

Cimarron, the Spanish term for Maroon meaning feral or fugitive, is a series of allegorical photographs from photographer, Max Ruiz, that traces the history of runaway black slaves in the Caribbean. In Cimarron, Ruiz not only connects his past with the Maroons', but his images unite the stories of anyone who has ever been oppressed. His photographs bring to mind Francois Makandal, Rey Bayano, Nyanga, and Gabriel Prosser - all heroes capable of rising up against their oppressors. An imaginary tale escapes within his pictures, testifying to a poignant, often overlooked reality. There is no force stronger than the desire to be free.

By creating new lives and new histories through their efforts of defiance, these Maroons became an invisible part of the landscape, like the thick woven vines, ferns, tree trunks and leaves of the forest - symbols of outlaws defending justice and freedom. Each image contains the entirety of a story that unfolds throughout the series. "I make fables," says Max Ruiz "I like providing the opportunity to share visions. I believe that some of these visions are given to me. They pass through me like water, just like the roots of a tree passes through the leaves."

Every image bears the name of a slave who contributed to the history of his country. The combination of sensitivity and creativity that Ruiz brings to his work makes the series singularly refreshing in its ability to provoke thought and aesthetically stimulate the viewer.

CURATOR'S BIO

Corinne Tapia has been involved for 20 years in the photography world as a collector and consultant. In France, Corinne was a fund-raising for the "Visages du Jazz" Exhibition that were be part of the Galeries Fnac between 1995 until 2005 in France and in Europe.

Living in New York since 2001, she opened with her partners a photo gallery which welcomes emerging and mid-career photographers with different nationalities and backgrounds. Sous Les Etoiles Gallery located in Soho NYC hosts six exhibitions per year.

The Gallery participates in several photo and art fairs around the United States, collaborating with American Photography Master Program, and in some photography projects with the City of New York. The Gallery collaborates also in portfolio reviews with Photolucida (Portland), FotoFest (Houston) ICP (New York), and Les Rencontres d'Arles (France). In 2010, Sous Les Etoiles Gallery will sign its first partnership in Asia.

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