Didier Ruef (born 1961) is a Swiss documentary photographer best known for his portrayal of man and waste, recycle and sustainability, Africa, man and animals, Swiss alpine farmers and contemporary Switzerland.
Life and career
Didier Ruef was born in Geneva, Switzerland on July 15, 1961. He graduated from the University of Geneva, where he studied Economics (1981–1984).
In 1985, Ruef went to New York, where he obtained a diploma (1986) in photojournalism at the International Center of Photography (ICP). It was there that he developed his long-term essay of the life of a Puerto Rican family in Spanish Harlem, for which he won the Yann Geoffroy Prize in Milan in 1990. These photographs were exhibited at the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1990.
Since returning to Switzerland in 1987, Ruef started to work as a freelance documentary photographer and photojournalist and has visited all five continents, with a preference for Africa. He has worked on various stories on the human condition in black & white and color.
Ruef was a member of Network Photographers Agency in London from 1991 to 1997. He was a founding member in September 2002 of the Swiss photo agency, Pixsil, which he left in July 2009. Today he works as a freelance photographer, but he is also represented worldwide by the photo agencies Luz Photo Agency, Visum Foto and Redux Pictures.
Ruef has worked with Médecins Sans Frontières, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, Heks (Interchurch Aid), Swiss Red Cross, the Syngenta Foundation and the World Council of Churches.
Ruef's pictures are published in numerous magazines and newspapers in Europe, Asia and Northern America.
He won the King Albert Memorial Foundation Prize in 2000 for his book on Swiss mountain farmers (Bauern am Berg, Paysans de nos montagnes, Vita di montagna). This award, among other prizes, was the culmination of a long-term personal project which began in 1993 and completed in 1997. It was made possible with the support of Pro Helvetia for the photography and book in 1998, and an itinerant exhibition which toured Switzerland, Italy, Singapore and Jordan between 1999 and 2002.
In 2000 and 2001, Ruef was commissioned by the Swiss branch of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for an extensive photographic report on daily life in six African countries. These pictures, together with those from numerous other African essays form the basis of a book Afrique Noire, published in 2005. An itinerant exhibition toured Switzerland and France between 2005 and 2007.
In 2007, he was commissioned by the Swiss Foundation DiDé, Dignité en Détention, for a book Enfants Prisonniers on the minors’ jail in Gitarama, Rwanda.
From 1991 to 2011, he has also been involved in a personal project worldwide on the relationship between Man and Waste. He has shot twenty photo essays and has finally published in 2011 the book Recycle, Labor et Fides (French-English) and Edizioni Casagrande (Italian-German). In 2018, he has published the book Homo Helveticus by Till Schaap Edition on his beloved country Switzerland.
In 2021, he has published the book 2020. by Till Schaap Edition in which he shot a picture a day - 366 images - during the entire 2020 year.
Awards
Swiss Press Photo 21. Third prize for the Swiss Stories. 2021
Deutscher Fotobuchpreis. Nomination 2012
Swiss Press Photo. First prize for the foreign section. 2006
Fujifilm Euro Press Photo Awards. Swiss prize for the technique section. 2004
Swiss Press Photo. First prize for the foreign section. 2003
Swiss Press Photo. First and third prizes for the foreign section. 2002
for the book Bauern am Berg, OZV Offizin Zürich Verlag. Switzerland. 2000
Schweizerische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für die Berggebiete (SAB) Switzerland for the book Bauern am Berg OZV Offizin Zürich Verlag. Switzerland. 1999 Passy's mountain book fair, France, for the book Paysans de nos montagnes, Editions Monographic. 1999 Honorable mention. UNESCO. Japan. 1993 Applied Arts Magazine Awards Annual. USA. 1993 Third black&white prize. Nikon International. Japan. 1991 Yann Geoffroy. Agenzia Grazia Neri. Milan. Italy. 1990 Second color prize. Nikon International. Japan. 1989 Grand Prix. L'Illustré. Switzerland. 1983