‘North Korea meets Las Vegas’ was photographer Stefan Ruiz’s first thought upon arriving in Astana to shoot the epic Trip story for the current issue of Wallpaper*. Despite having already seen more of the world than most people do in a lifetime, nowhere Ruiz had been before compared to the surreal vision of this kitsch city looming out of the Kazakh tundra.
As well as photographing the eccentric architecture and communist memorials in Kazakhstan’s two main cities, Astana and Almaty, for the magazine, Ruiz shot an epic portfolio of portraits of everyday citizens, which is presented exclusively here.
From his days teaching art to death row inmates at San Quentin prison through to photographing Hutu refugees in Tanzania, rodeo queens in Nevada and Mexican telenovela actors on set, Ruiz has been fascinated by the character and faces of people the world over.
Sitters in this new portfolio include performers at the circus in Astana, pupils at a judo school in Almaty, theatre performers captured in costume during breaks in a play detailing the country’s rich history and, more whimsically, but no less insightfully, local men wearing Cossack style hats.
Ruiz chooses to shoot on a large format 5”x4” plate camera, which imposes formality and the discipline of carefully composing each shot, only slightly undermined by the fact that the camera’s film back broke in the sub-zero temperatures on the trip, and ended up being held together with elastic bands.
Despite this setback, there is no denying that what he has captured here is a compelling and revealing insight into a country five times the size of France which is only now beginning to open its doors to the outside world.
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