1959 Colombia born RUVEN AFANADOR is one of the photographers I admire the most, I especially like his fashion photography, and of course he is one of the leading names in fashion. In his career which began in New York and Milan, we’ve seen his photographs on many covers such as ELLE, VOGUE, TATLER; and many ad campaigns like NORDSTORM, DIOR, ARISTA, J.MENDEL. But I most of all adore his editorials for VOGUE, NY TIMES and VANITY FAIR. He has the Best Photographer award of Trophee de la Mode and in 2001 he presented a fantastic book named TORERO which has taken its place on many collectioner’s shelves, I suggest you take a look at that book.

There we see a darkness in AFANODOR’s photographs, to me it reminds of Edgar Allen Poe’s, but he says he inspires from the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, his hero, and the darkness is coming from his childhood. His photos are mostly surreal or as mixed and colorful as Colombia; masquerades, ornaments, superficial symbols, pageant images stand out.

He’s especially fond of couture, says he like the couture shootings most, and he likes DIOR and GAULTIER’s theatrical collection most of all.

AFANADOR himself admires IRVING PENN passionately , thinks he is an irreplaceable master in photography.

Besides his art on photography, AFANADOR has 3 videos, Rock&Roll is Dead and Circos(by Lenny Cravitz) are the best knowns. He likes to work alone as a photographer, but one name he likes to work with is Ruben Toledo and his incredible art. (I think of preparing a post about this amazing couple Isabel and Ruben Toledo very soon)