Luxury of freedom

BIG BERRY PEOPLE

Rafael Ruiz, photographer documenting the life of people

Rafael Ruiz is our clever and sensitive photographer who has a passion for people.

Rafael Ruiz first got into photography twenty years ago, when he used his first salary to buy a reflex camera and 4 lenses. He is a self-taught photographer, who learned everything by practicing: “I think photography should be a passion that pushes you to investigate and try hard without any real effort”. Rafael thinks that learning from a course easily drives people into making photos with similar style, which kills creativity and uniqueness.

According to Rafael, photography is always evolving with the photographer himself. Until now, his photography focused on the anthropological manifestations of the human being from the point of view of documentary photography. Now, however, he is more attracted to abstract themes, trying to photograph the inner evolution and spirituality of people. Rafael gets inspiration from many different photographers from different times: Ernesto bazan, Koudelka, and Alex webb to name a few.

BIG BERRY Photographers Rafael Ruiz Domaca obrt cvitkovic

BIG BERRY Photographers Rafael Ruiz Kolpa adventures

Rafael has had the privilege to travel because of his art, which has left him with a lot of good memories. In the search of a great shot, he has experienced a lot: living with the circus “Alegria” in Bolivia, visiting a cemetery of elephants in La Paz and searching for rooster fights all over Cuba! A perfect photo for Rafael is the kind of photo that will leave the viewer speechless for a moment. “You don’t know what has happened, nor you know what exactly you like about it, but you feel that time has stopped, and you feel an indescribable spark within you”.

When it comes to difficulties in the profession, Rafael thinks the biggest change is the rapid emergence of digital facilities: “Nowadays anyone can obtain images of good technical quality (…) They have changed the rules of the professional market and displaced many professionals”.  However, it doesn’t mean everyone is able to capture moments and actually create quality photographic content. Rafael’s advice for beginner photographers is to look at millions and millions of photographs to learn about the perspective and composition. After that, “FLOW with what you are photographing without thinking of any technical parameters”, he says.

BIG BERRY Photographers Rafael Ruiz Kuzma 2

BIG BERRY Photographers Rafael Ruiz Kuzma

Rafael visited us at BIG BERRY Kolpa River in 2017 and spent two unforgettable months photographing the beautiful Bela Krajina. He got to learn a lot about the life in this region, as he went around photographing our BIG BERRY Partners! “BIG BERRY is related to the environment and to the artisans and farmers who live in the region, it is a type of tourism that I like”.