About

Brazilian multi artist, 34 years old. He was adopted by the Lowrider Community in Brazil at age 10, when his father abandoned him.

Son of a single mother, he grew up in a poor and violent neighborhood in the São Paulo ghetto, alongside five sisters and an older brother.

 

At the age of 15, he began photographing his activities as an amateur, when a colleague saw that there was talent in his photographs and recommended him for an audiovisual workshop at an NGO in the south of São Paulo.

 

Since then, he has used these work tools to also record and document his experience within this parallel universe that is Lowrider Culture.

Rafael started the Cinema course at Anhembi Morumbi, studied radio and TV at Canal Futura in a partner project with the Roberto Marinho Foundation.
 He studied at different arts, cinema and photography schools: Instituto Criar, Senac, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Escola de Cinema and RDC.

 

He worked in post-production at the best audiovisual production companies in São Paulo Brazil.

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In 2017 he received an invitation to exhibit his work on Lowrider culture, in Clermont Ferrand-France.

In the same year he had six photos of his project published in the book The World Atlas of Street Fashion by Caroline Cox, in London.

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In 2019 he held his first photographic exhibition at the Matilha Cultural gallery in São Paulo

That same year he was invited by history and anthropology professor John Ulloa, from San Francisco State University, USA, to talk about his experience in the Lowrider Culture.

 

In 2020 he directed the documentary Otra Vida, which tells the story of the pioneering Brazilian Lowrider club. The film won several awards at international film festivals.

 

He also likes to draw, paint canvas and tattoo people.