Once you know his name, you can recognize a Rafael Pavarotti photo instantly. His vivid colors, high contrast, and surreal texture have marked his work with Chanel, Dior, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Harry Styles, among others. His striking and unique visual images are uncompromising and unabashedly bold: no color too bright, no silhouette too over-the-top, and no pose too statuesque, all inspired by his own Afro-Indigenous Brazilian culture. And now, over 200 of his prints are on display in his very first solo exhibition, at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
Born in 1993 in the Amazon rainforest in Pará, Pavarotti taught himself photography at age 12 after borrowing his father’s Kodak camera. The exhibition, presented in partnership with Brazilian luxury group Iguatemi, uses this as an entry point and showcases some of his earliest photographs from his hometown, as well as his first professional shots of models from when he moved to Rio de Janeiro at the age of 16. He then moved to São Paulo and London, before setting his roots down in Paris. Today, it’s easy to see his global influence in fashion photography and beyond.
“Colour has always been central to my understanding of the world,” he tells ELLE. “Growing up in the Amazon, colour was never separate from life. In my photography, it is deeply connected to memory, presence, and the ability of an image to preserve something beyond the moment in which it was created.” His images draw from his real-life experience: “My family, my friends, my community, and the people who have walked beside me remain among my greatest sources of inspiration,” he says. “The Amazon also continues to exist within my work as a source of energy, memory, and orientation.”
