anadian born Raphael Mazzucco swapped the glamorous world of fashion and music
thought and the expansiveness of dreaming, which is a big part of what I do” muses Mazzucco. Interestingly he says that art for him is a ‘journey,’ and the photo- graphs are for him simply ‘a map,’ so although they are the starting point he does not now see them as the end. “People often ask me which comes first - photography or art, but they are almost always one and the same. I see them as a collective artistic whole.” Working initially with fashion images that often combine dramatic lush landscapes with the female form, he builds a layered narrative through paint, collage, resin and hand-lettered texts, transforming the original
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photography over six years ago, as he moved seamlessly from camera to canvas, carving out a dynamic niche within the art world for his extraordinarily colourful and captivating photo canvases. A self-taught lens man, Mazzucco has won recognition within a relatively short time for his large arresting pieces - typically a photo print artistically enhanced and layered with various materials such as wood, resin, acrylic and paint. “Mazzucco’s work is cutting edge, eminently creditable and hugely prestigious” explains Glyn Washington, founder and Creative Director of Washington Green, fine art publisher to Castle Galleries and Castle Fine Art. “I hadn’t seen anything like it before, and it excites me as much today as it did when I first saw it”. A former professional football player and model, Mazzucco cemented his professional reputation as one of the world’s most influential fashion photographers over a career spanning twenty years, photographing countless celebrities and creating iconic images for some of the world’s best-known brands, including Ralph Lauren, Victoria’s Secret, Calvin Klein and Guess Jeans. A handsome larger than life character, he has always attracted the talented and stylish, moving within the starry orbit of the New York fashion elite. His striking photographs of beautiful models (often in the skimpiest of bikinis – if any!) have also appeared in the world’s glossiest magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Playboy and Sports Illustrated, while his worldwide reputation has made him the ‘go-to’ photographer for some of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Matt Damon, Benicio del Toro, Susan Sarandon and Dakota Fanning. He points to the great photogra- phers such as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, and Helmut Newton as major influences on his work, and specifical- ly David Bailey who first successfully fused exotic fashion photography with serious portraiture; as well as painter Robert Rauschenberg for his passion- ate use of colour. “My love of colour allows me to express the freedom of
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photographs into intoxicating pieces of art. “Over the years I kept building the process with resin, which allows me to introduce more layers, and gave me a platform to make the paintings perhaps a little bit more poetic.” he explains. His relaxed and spontaneous approach is evident in the free flowing movement of his work “I do believe “My love of colour allows me to express the freedom of thought and the expansiveness of dreaming, which is a big part of what I do”
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6 FIN e ARTC o LL e CT o R SPRING2016
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