Ruven Afanador (Bucaramanga, October 22, 1959) is a Colombian photographer nationalized in the United States, where he arrived at the age of 14 to settle with his family in Michigan. It was there that he began to develop his trade. He is recognized internationally for being one of the most influential fashion photographers, for the quality of his portraits and fashion editorials. From a very young age, she has photographed for magazines such as Elle, Vogue, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and the New York Times Magazine. Hollywood personalities such as Quentin Tarantino, George Clooney, Al Pacino, Céline Dion have posed in front of his lens; and politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Son of Enrique Afanador, a watch dealer and collector of antiques, and Isabel Peña, a teacher at the Libertad2 Adventist College in Bucaramanga. Ruven Afanador's parents worked in the florist business with Enrique López Rovira, who was the first cousin of President Alfonso López Pumarejo. The flower shop was located in the country house of Mr. Enrique López, who had built it following a republican style and it is, in said building, where the Bucaramanga Museum of Modern Art currently operates, where he exhibited in 1992. The above It is documented in the profile of Afanador written by Felipe Restrepo Pombo and published in the book 16 eccentric portraits.
He lived in Bucaramanga with his three sisters (Marlene, Marta Cecilia and Elizabeth) and their parents until 1972. When Ruven turned 14, his family decided to move to the United States of America to settle in Michigan, in search of a better future for the education of their children.
In 1978, upon seeing the film Eyes of Laura Mars (Irvin Kershner), he decided he wanted to pursue photography. The neighborhood in which he grew up before becoming a teenager (in Bucaramanga) was located near the best photography studio in the city, Foto Serrano, where he spent hours spying on the beauty queens and the clientele that entered the place to be photographed. He always liked to see the process that was carried out when photographing a person. From the age of 12, when he saw his first film, he felt passionate about cinema and photography.
From the basement of his small house in the town of Harbor Springs in Michigan, Ruven began to take his first shots, making his sister Marta (one of the oldest) the character main of his works in adolescence. What started as a simple distraction for teenagers would be what would lead him to be a world-renowned photographer in several years. After finishing his high school studies in Harbor Springs, his family moved to Washington County (Maryland). In Maryland he is faced with the decision to choose a major for the university and his first option is focused on business and administration. He withdrew from said occupation, since he discovered that his thing is the arts and there he decided to focus his studies on sculpture and graphic design.
Thanks to the vague contact he had with graphic design, he discovered in it his passion for photography and thus made the decision to live off a camera for the rest of his life. His concerned parents supported him by giving him his first camera, a Minolta, and he set out on the path to becoming a famous photographer, initially shooting his sisters and even his mother.
In his student years he met Eric Ekhart, who influenced him as he introduced him to the work of Irving Penn and Richard Avedon, where Ruven found inspiration. Ekhart gave him some wise advice, he knew that it was essential for Afanador to carry out part of his studies as an artist in Europe. Ruven decided, with some stubbornness, to stay in Washington working as an assistant in one of the photographic studios. Over time, he moved to New York in search of better job opportunities, since his residence had limitations to grow professionally and become a renowned artist. However, even living in a city with a much more artistic and liberal environment, he was constantly rejected. Ruven had a period of his life filled with great frustration, which was necessary for him to motivate himself to go to that place that his old friend and teacher (Ekhart) had suggested, Europe. He decided to go live in Milan, Italy.
Italy was responsible for giving Ruven the opportunity to develop as an artist and recognize what he wanted to reflect in his works. He felt an immense love for his native country, for Bucaramanga and Colombia and he always wanted to express that his desire was to reflect that feeling in his works. In Milan he gradually built up his portfolio, beginning with a certain number of improvisations. His photographs always reflected the European landscape contrasted with his Latin American roots.
After six months of hard and steady work, he returned to the United States with a fresh new air, returned to peak his profession and establish himself as one of the best photographers of the time. He showed his portfolio in different magazines, famous publications and advertising agencies that were astonished with his innovative style.
Italy was responsible for giving Ruven the opportunity to develop as an artist and recognize what he wanted to reflect in his works. He felt an immense love for his native country, for Bucaramanga and Colombia and he always wanted to express that his desire was to reflect that feeling in his works. In Milan he gradually built up his portfolio, beginning with a certain number of improvisations. His photographs always reflected the European landscape contrasted with his Latin American roots.
After six months of hard and steady work, he returned to the United States with a fresh new air, returned to peak his profession and establish himself as one of the best photographers of the time. He showed his portfolio in different magazines, famous publications and advertising agencies that were astonished with his innovative style.
Her influences go beyond her fixation on another famous artist or a specific art movement. His inspiration comes more from his personal life, from his childhood. He always says that when it comes to capturing scenes with splendid images, he considers it more important to identify with his origin, his country and hometown, the place where he grew up until adolescence and which generated in him his first interest in the aesthetics of photography, fashion and beauty. Being far from Colombia, he says that he realized that, despite the distance, that Latin American essence would always exist in his soul, which apparently he cannot hide in his works. This was the factor that helped make him stand out among the other photographers in the world; love and fidelity by nature led him to grow as a professional and as a human being.
Despite not having a direct influence from any of his fellow artists, Afanador has had great admiration for a renowned Colombian writer Gabriel García Marquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature at the year of 1982. The identification and admiration for this writer is due to the fact that García Márquez is known in turn for the Colombian description in many of his works, as well as having a Latin American recognition that characterizes him. Of equal The most famous characteristic work of Ruven Afanador is taken into account for the development of the book Thousand Kisses. It was the third of his photographic books, but the first composed solely of the female figure with a variety of photographs exposing the woman in life. In an interview conducted by the magazine Summus, belonging to El Espectador, -Colombian newspaper-, Afanador confesses that the work is inspired by Isabel, his mother, it is a recognition of what she represents and represented in her life, her teachings and the great affection that he gave him throughout his existence. However, Ruven acknowledges that the book is a tribute to women in general.
In the first of her books, she asked Héctor Abad to write the prologue for her book because she read one of his works 'A Culinary Treatise for Sad Women' and was amazed.< /p>
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English (United Kingdom)