Ruven Afanador

A photographers photographer

For anyone who is not familiar with Ruven Afanador , it is a ‘ Loss ‘. Whether one is into nature , still life, portrait , landscape, or fashion photography , one thing is certain : Great Photographers don’t come along very often , and very few manage to leave their imprint upon the world of Art & the world in general .

I can recall a few ( which have left their impression upon me & the world at large ) such as Avedon, Scavullo, Minor White , Ansel Adams ( one of the greatest Landscape Photographers in American History I believe ) & a few others . Now I’m certain that there are a myriad of new photographers out there and all of them very good at their craft . However, I don’t have all that time on my hands as of yet, thus : I havent discovered them .

There are great photographers out there , and it’s always a great thing when discovering something new and extraordinary which you werent aware of the day before . Such is the case with Ruven Afanador ; what I would like to term ” Photographer Extraordinaire ” & a ‘ Photographers Photographer ‘. For , if any of these two titles belong to any such photographer , then they most assuredly belong to Ruven Afanador . As one can clearly assess from his works , Ruven is not just a mere ‘ photographer ‘ , who picks up his Leica , [ or whatever his choice of machine was ], and just go out there and shoot pictures of anything he came upon . Afanador’s work , is not mere photography .

It is ART .

This makes all of the difference in Afanadors work. Photography , may be limited to our visual sensory factor . If one were blind & no longer possessed their faculty of sight – they would no longer be able to ” see ” through that lens .

Afanador , would .

His ” vision ” as far as his photography is concerned is beyond a doubt , and certainly NOT LIMITED to his sensory factor ; Afanador’s ‘ vision ‘ , comes from ” within ” . That is quite rare . Vision , is nothing more than ” Imagination ” fueled by Creativity . Looking upon Ruven’s work collaborative , one can agree that Creativity & Imagination are the most pivotal aspects of his ‘ talent ‘ , and his Artistic Genius , not only as a photographer , but as an Artist – which is not limited to a one sided aspect of the arts . Afanador is plethoric as an artist .

Ruven Afanador may spend much time in a dark room , but it seems that he brings beautiful things to light

Born in Bogota Colombia 1959, Ruven Afanador is considered one of the leading photographers working in celebrity and fashion photography.

Judging from his works, one is able to understand why.

His work appears in most major fashion magazines in the world as well as in The New Yorker. His commercial clients include Arista, Cacharel, Christian Dior, Elektra et al. In the fall of 2001, a decade after his work first began attracting widespread attention, he published his first book, Torero. Within a year Torero sold out and became a collector’s item within the fashion world. Sombra, a collection of male nudes inspired by still life tableaus, was published by Merrell in 2004.

Enjoy some of Afanadors works below as well as the video . It is filmed in Seville [ Spain ] , and as one visually traverses along these streets , they are able to see not only a beautiful geographic location – but moreover : one is clearly able to see the ” Homage ” [ Tribute ] , the people of Seville are bestowing upon Afanador by displaying all of his works ( or most of them ) , in beautiful tall glass street panes all along the streets of Seville . It’s quite a lovely walk , as one gets to see ( even if it is fleetingly in passing ) all of the great works of Ruven Afanador .
Enjoy the photography , and the video depicting the beautiful streets of Seville .