Evocative of the return to his roots, Raphael has also featured the idea of Mother Nature as represented by his model muses, championing the female form as the source of life. This homage to womanhood is a continuation from his previous collection Gaia , aptly named after the Greek Mother Earth goddess. Stripping back into nature and time, Grass Roots reflects and celebrates Raphael’s love and respect for Africa and her subjects. The series leaves no room for modernity or posturing. Instead, its meditative power forces us to undress our own artifices, bearing us down a path of individual and collective discovery. “It is definitely one of the most inspiring places to photograph. The vast landscape allows for complete surprise, and all the experiences I’ve had there are absolutely unique.”
crocodiles, and lions. What frightened others only exhilarated him, and his own fearlessness seemed to permeate the team, pushing them through any self-imposed barriers or constructs of fear. The result is the stunning images shown throughout the Grass Roots collection. He explains in his first-ever collector’s edition book, The Never-Ending Summer : “Make no mistake; in Africa you feel the wild. There’s no place on earth like it. It’s a place of distinct identities, completely different during the daytime than at night. A journey through Africa is hypnotic and constantly full of surprises, and it poses its own unique challenges.” For the limited editions created from a selection of these original works, some of the images have been cropped to allow the subjects, such as the lion’s face in ‘Free Spirit,’ to seize full focus, creating a more primal, face-to-face experience with the animals.
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker