Stefan Ruiz is a photographer whose work I have always appreciated but I was mostly happy to see that some of sources of his inspiration were both partly drawn from the Italian and Flemish Renaissance... Vice produced a comprehensive documentary about his work and it is worth watching, especially because there is no real third parties overdubbing or adding their own mediocre editorial voices; he does most of the talking which is how this sort of thing should be done ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4mL1gIW_gg
The other video is a small documentary piece done on yours truly back in 2004 for Spark, a Bay Area show on the arts in Northern California(KQED). To this day it still makes me cringes, but, humiliation "is" an essential part broadcasting; Vice did a far superior job letting the photographer speak instead of editorializing, which often falls flat and makes for crap TV... Nevertheless, and to my great surprise, both pieces discuss the Flemish and Italian Renaissance portraiture styles as inspirational elements....
I have very little time today to be even remotely introspective or eloquent, or even both, so I will allow you to draw your own conclusions instead of editorializing.....Thanks for coming, please come again.....a
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBWCvE2yjK8