Rafael Pavarotti

Vogue Girl · January 12, 2022

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Photographer Rafael Pavarotti was born in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest in 1993. His earliest photographs were made in collaboration with his young friends, who pooled their money to purchase film shot along the beaches and around the abandoned buildings of their locale. At 16, Pavarotti left his remote hometown, committed to establishing a professional practice in the urban centers of fashion and media.

Pavarotti attributes the rich and vibrant color palette of his photographs to the everyday sights of his upbringing. His work is often characterized by its fusion of vivid tones with bold compositional arrangements, revealing fashion as sculptural adornment.

Pavarotti’s collaborations with British-Gambian fashion editor Ibrahim Kamara are among the most novel and celebrated visualizations of fashion in recent memory. The potency of their work -- which advances the beautification and normalization of Black and indigenous bodies -- has emerged amid sweeping calls for racial justice and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pavarotti is passionate about addressing the imbalance of Black representation in fashion and broader historical narratives. Expressing his ambition to help under-represented populations of today find equitable representation in the future, Pavarotti has said, “much of what I do today is for the next generations to come, and those who are not yet born.”

Pavarotti’s clients include Vogue Paris, i-D and Dior.