Jules Ruby, photographer.
People look best when they've been seen.
Jules Ruby is a Cape Town photographer who can fix your fringe and then take the picture. Her hair and makeup work has won two SAFTAs, and she still does it. Hair, makeup, styling and photography are one skill set, so the look is built before the first frame.
Her work covers fashion and portrait, studio and documentary, and the behind-the-scenes record of film and advertising sets. Clients get one person who understands every job on the set, including theirs. Her pictures need very little done to them afterwards, which retouchers find either restful or alarming.
She takes on a small number of commissions a season.
The Practice
Disciplines-
01
Fashion & Portrait
Polished, with the person still in it. She knows what a look needs because building looks is still half her job.
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02
Behind the Scenes
Film and advertising sets are home ground, whether she arrives with a makeup kit or a camera. She knows when to step in and when to stay out of the way, and the frames show it.
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03
Documentary
The slower work. She waits until people forget the camera is there, and shoots what's real.
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04
Hair, Makeup & Styling
Still a working part of what she does, and the craft behind both SAFTAs. It is the reason every shoot she photographs looks right in camera.
She notices what most people miss. That is usually the story.
Years in the makeup chair taught Jules where people hold their nerves, and the moment they let go. She watches for it through the lens: the breath before a take, the laugh that slips out when someone forgets the camera. Her pictures feel like the person in them, and they need very little explaining.
In Camera
How a shoot worksBefore
The look is planned from the first conversation, by someone who knows exactly what it takes, so nothing is left to chance on the day.
On set
Every detail gets checked through the lens and fixed there. Light, fabric, a flyaway.
After
Light retouching only. The final image looks like what was in front of the camera.
The Work
Four galleriesAt a Glance
Details- SAFTA 2017
- Best Achievement in Wardrobe, Make-Up and Hairstyling
- SAFTA 2016
- Best Achievement in Make-Up and Hairstyling
- Based in
- Cape Town, South Africa
- Shoots
- Fashion, portrait, studio, documentary, film & advertising sets
- Commissions
- A small number each season
- @rubytwoblue