George Ruhe was born in Jersey City in 1951 to an American father and a German mother, and his earliest visual memories were forged by frequent day trips exploring New York City's Manhattan Island with his grandmother. Aside from childhood adventures with a Brownie Box camera, he took up photography with serious intent while studying at Valparaiso University. He began taking street photographs in Chicago, with a Zeiss Ikon 2.25 X 2.25mm rangefinder camera his father had brought back to the States from Germany after WW 2. In addition to a wide variety of corporate/industrial and editorial clients, he has worked primarily for The New York Times as a freelance photojournalist since 1993. He pursues a personal photographic vision carrying a Leica M6 camera on international and domestic travel junkets between assignments. He makes his permanent home in Connecticut, 100 miles north of New York City, and divide his time between there, Berlin, DE, and Bern, Switzerland.