Didier Ruef is a documentary photographer and freelance photojournalist, based in Lugano and working in and out of Switzerland. He is specialised in the environment, waste and recycling, human daily life and social issues. Ruef's journey as a documentary photographer has taken him to more than 80 countries where he has shot over the last 40 years hundreds of reportages and photo essays. His photographs have been exhibited around the world in museums and galeries. Ruef's photographs have been published in major international magazines and newspapers, such as Time, The Observer Magazine, The Economist, Daily Telegraph, Le Monde, Libération, L'Express, L'illustré, Le Temps, El Pais Semanal, XL Semanal,  Geo (South Korea), Rhythms Monthly (Taiwan), Ogonyok, Marie Claire (Italy), D (La Republica), Azione, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Das Magazin, Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Didier Ruef has published seven books: in 1998 Paysans de nos montagnes | Editions Monographic and in German translations as Bauern am Berg | Offizin Verlag and in Italian as Vita di montagna | Edizioni Casagrande; in 2005 Afrique Noire | Infolio Editions; in 2007 Enfants Prisonniers | DiDé; in 2011 Recycle | Labor et Fides in French and English and Recycle | Edizioni Casagrande in Italian and German; ; in 2012 Bestiarium | QTI in italian; in 2019 Homo Helveticus | Till Schaap Edition in French and English; in 2021 the book 2020 | Till Schaap Edition in French, German, Italian and English.