Yadhira Carrillo, Nora in Amarte es mi Pecado by Stefan Ruiz

Photographer and former Hey, Hot Shot! panelist Stefan Ruiz has a new show up in Brooklyn! The Factory of Dreams, which opened this past Friday at F.L.O.A.T. Gallery is a wildly entertaining peek inside a major television studio—one among the many that comprise an enigmatic powerhouse: The Latin American Soap Opera. Ruiz's series presents us with portraits of stars of Latin American television (often in character!), the sets they work on, and shows the crew in action as they create television magic. Each of the portraits also offers insight into facets of Latin American culture—the characters, and the actors that play them act as representations of types of people in society. Both exaggeratedly sexy and humorous, Stefan steps into sets, then retreats from them, asking you at times to believe these people are laymen, then reminding you that they are constructions of people created from a script.

From the exhibition's press release:

Televisa Studios, in the San Angel neighborhood of Mexico City, is called ‘The Factory of Dreams’ and is best-known for its telenovelas (soap operas). These fantasies of love, wealth and betrayal are one of Mexico’s largest exports. They are popular throughout Latin America but also in Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA. No one produces more telenovelas than Mexico’s Televisa studios. The telenovela and its protagonists are a powerful vehicle through which contemporary Latin American culture and its society can be understood and interpreted.

Stefan first photographed Televisa studios in 2003 for COLORS magazine as their creative director. He returned to the studios after the issue published and continued to work on the project over a period of six years. Stefan's behind-the-scenes photographs in The Factory of Dreams reveal this secret world with humor and affection.

If you're in NYC over the next three weeks, make sure you stop by The F.L.O.A.T. Gallery and have a look at Stefan's portraits. If you can't make the exhibition, more images from the series (and some insightful character introductions, gleaned from an interview with Stefan by Chris Boot) are available on his website.

The Details:
The Factory of Dreams
On View: November 19th - December 13th, 2010
at F.L.O.A.T. Gallery
539 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217