The Environmental Portrait: Ruven Afanador

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Ruven Afanador is a catalogue photographer who photographs celebrities. The reason why I find catalogue photography interesting is the skill of posing that they use that shows the character of the person they're photographing. Especially when it comes to actors and people who are comfortable being behind the camera these types of shooting are more playful as they're also aimed towards a larger audience. 

    The element that makes the most difference in my opinion is the backgrounds and the props that he uses. Considering his models already have an establish image as influential people he can play around with the composition of his images. For Example, his Photographies of  Rauw Alejandro, they start with a simple portrait featuring his tattoos and making him seem tough. Afanador proceeding to put Rauw in a cloak and Changning the environment that he is standing on gives him a more mystical look.

    Although Afanador does a lot of digital work his analogue photography is very capturing and timeless. His pictures of Harrison Ford show that specially the ones with high contrast that depicts more of a moody feeling compared to the images of him laughing and being the comedic actor that he is. 

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