Interview
Aaron Ruell’s Perfect Suburban
Vignettes
Though to the broader world Aaron Ruell is famous
for his role as Kip in Napoleon Dynamite, in the world
of Photography he has been established for quite
some time. You are probably aware of his work and
don’t even know it, as he is the man behind those
outrageous Old Spice ads with retired NFL star Ray
Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens, as well as ads for
T-Mobile, Nintendo, Coke, and Burger King.
Beyond his commercial work, his personal
photography is his best, and has been exhibited
around the world. Aaron has gained acclaim for the
neat candy colored vignettes that have become the
staples of his work. His photos have a sense of hyperorganization and proprietary, often framing the
unassuming shrug of small town America. He works
off of sets that he constructs, and his staged scenes
has a sense of detail and perfection that is something
to see.
His work is awesome and original, and so we had to
ask him to do an interview with us.
How did you grow to love the medium of
photography and start doing it professionally?
I started taking photos when I was a teenager. There
was a photography class at my high school and I had
a really good photo teacher who helped me boost my
confidence with shooting. I didn’t have any particular
style at that time it was a lot of simple compositions
but more rural settings (I grew up outside of town
in the countryside).I started to get paid for my
photography after I had put together a book of my
work. I travelled to Europe for a few weeks and shot
some things there that helped round out my body of
images, and got a rep around that time.
73|PicsArt Monthly