RAFALISM

For me, there are two human species in this world. A cast that has been shaped from whatever society has given to them, having buried their hopes and dreams, and live a so called normal life with the hope that they will be able at some point of their life to make a change. And there is another specie, the one that doen't quite adapt itself to the majority, and is the one that acts as a leader for the majority whenever the normality falls down. The last one has been for ages the ones that do reshape the way everyone's think,observe and understand the world.

Rafa, has always been a person that could scratch a wall until his hands would become art in his head. Melancholic lookalike, but rainbow acting in every aspect of his life, he has become a multi-side artist. He has been drawn to filmography at early age, and at the time was trying to understand himself through art and human expression,moved to photography and through his journey he has become one of the most honest,expressive and stunning people I've met.

His modeling career has collaborations with some of the biggest names in the industry, and he is unique in each photoshoot and every campaign. He has a stable fan club who miraculously follow him for who he is, and not for his looks. Rafa would be the one crazy looking teenager, the rebel one, that everyone had something bad to say about, but at the same time we all wanted to have in our friend list.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/rafitarechInstagram: www.instagram.com/rafarechTwitter: www.twitter.com/rechrafaelVimeo: www.vimeo.com/rafaelrech
Tumblr: www.rafarech.tumblr.com

All images and materials are copyright protected and are the property of Mr. Rafa Rech

- Hi Rafa, can you give us a bit of your background and who Rafa is.

Well, Rafa is a very complex person. I've has been thousands different Rafa's before the man you are facing today. But more than ever,Rafa today is the biggest and the strongest one that could've ever been.

Professionally speaking, I started my career in a film school, where I found myself by my talent to create images. Through there I have worked in several different audiovisual projects, such as short films, commercials, feature films, fashion films, documentaries, reality shows, anything you can imagine. But I was always behind the camera.

By then,I directed a couple of fictions and documentaries. I'm specialized in direction, cinematography and edition as well. The video-clips from the 80′s, 90′s and 00′ made my mind cross this path.After a couple of years I got hired in a Production House, in North Mexico, where I moved from Sao Paulo, without even thinking twice.

Now I am transformed into a Mexican. I say that because my heart is from Mexico and all my recent experiences too, but I am a born Brazilian. It's a whole new chapter for me. After 2 years, tired of the business, I saved some money and decided to move to Mexico City, where I got an invitation from a model agency to start working with them. I was 26 years old.Since I always love the challenge to overleap every single hardship in my life, I accepted.

I started working on that and here it is! Two years professionally modeling. I got pretty lucky because my pictures started to be shared in social media a lot and the more people were sharing, my work reached a tremendous success I never dreamed of. Even as a cinematographer,that was always a dream of mine, to actually see my work get acknowledged in strange, far countries, but I made it real with my own image, not by filming others.

- Let’s begin with your first modeling job . How did that come about? How did it feel like?

My first job frankly was not a job! I was a kind of playing a shooting with a friend, Jvdas Berra, a very talented Mexican photographer. Mexico has so many amazing people to work with, so talented and confident beyond imagination. This was back in Monterrey, so I just wanted to feel what it is like being on the other side of the camera. I used to knew Jvdas from other works we did together where I would do the photography and he would videograph.

We went to a river, far from the city, on a day with 48 celsius degrees. Oh gosh, North Mexico is the hell on earth some days. So I couldn′t but to dive naked in the river and we had the pictures. It was a blast! Homotography.com, our blog starts right here and after that we just couldn't stop.

- If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?

The industry itself. Nasty people doing nasty things with nasty motives. It's all about showing off sometimes. But that is not the actual privilege while being in the fashion world. Obviously fashion as a social section of the world, besides being stylish and communicating your personality, is inseparable with social classes, and that's when it can turn into having nasty values as a person. They pay you after 6 months sometimes, but I guess you already know that yourself! It's absurd! Sometimes it just feels like ′trafficking′ people.

- What are the best and worst parts of being a model?

The best is that you find great people in your journey. Great characters with great experiences to share. Also the best part is dealing with fabrics, ideas, designs, shapes, creating images, which is everything for me.

The worst is that it′s a job that shows of a lot of the glamourous side of it, but that's just appearance.The truth is that it's just unglamorous and shallow, as every other job.

If you accept yourself as a product you might enjoy better the fashion path, if you choose it.

If you are not starting at 16 years, possibly you can deal with things a lot better and take control on situations. Sometimes that superiority and  you get from a model and his/her behaviour is everything you need to understand that it's all made up. That can be the very opposite.

- Some of your photoshoots are edgy, rough and provoking. Did you venture outside your comfort zone to reach the desired result?

I just loved the fact that most of the works I′ve done are about a concept and include art. Mexico City is full of abstract-looking photographers. I'm lucky enough to start showing an art side of myself and people get connected with my style and through the concept that I worked for. So the photographers when they want to go edgy in a photoshoot, they usually come looking for me.

I venture myself being outside my comfort zones starting on being all covered up by tattoos. If you add to this, that I am very open minded and liberal with myself, my body, the people and the world  that surrounds me, such as arts, society, politics, it  makes me actually an outsider in the Latin conservative and Christian culture.

If I was not accepted the way I am or for the way I look,  in the fashion/commercial industry, probably I would never start modelling. So, to answer your question about stepping out of my comfort zones,the answer is yes!

My everyday life is that same battle of getting out of comfort zones. 

- What was the most challenging thing you had to face as a person to get where you are right now?

The toughest decisions I've made wasn't about my career, it always had been around the heart oriented decisions mostly.The toughest thing I've done so far, is by staying far from my family and my good friends. When you first turn yourself and then your career in a nomadic type of life you have to geographically move to achieve and accumulate experiences to keep growing as a person and as a professional.

So, it′s been 10 years on a row that I live in different cities far away from my family. I thought I wasn't going to get consumed by that, but it seams you get more sensible when you get older.

- Describe yourself in three words.

Eccentric,intense and down-to-earth.

- You're quite a colourful person, you own your style and you seem pretty much confident about anything you put on you. Does this come natural or did it take you some time?

The colourful theme has always being part of my life. The neon lights always get my attention. I only travelled to Berlin to know the city of the neon light that Kraftwerk had always played in my head since I was a child. I would say to people that everything that you ever saw from my work as the dress out part, especially the eccentric colorful outfits, are all my choices and my ideas.

Normally the commercial,catalogues or the campaigns jobs, are the ones that are less funny and less colorful than the way that I enjoy. Did it take me some time to get to my colorful choices? Type of yes. I had to visit flea markets,from time to time my brothers gave me theirs 90′s clothes,I used to see my clubber sisters wearing Lycra neon to go out dancing exetra exetra.

- Naked photoshoots. Nervous or comfy for you? What does "be sexy" as a striking pose mean to you?

Being naked can be very easy for most of Brazilians. Some from the Brazilian community might say, "hell no, that's not true", but that's my own experience looking at the scene as an insider. I learnt about celebrating my body in Brasil, back to 2008. Nightlife in Sao Paulo′s was such a blast. We used to party in some hedonist Eden Paradise nightclubs or even in very rare venues like abandoned buildings, porn movies backgrounds.

That was so close to nature and had the a sense of freedom from all concepts, and we just would dance and we would just strip as the heat went on. There was nothing sexual about it, believe me, or at least sex was not in the centre of it. I really mean that.

I mean, when people are free of theirs bodies, connecting their souls can be easier to achieve. My personal opinion is that perversions started after religions came but in our mind it's pretty clear that our body is the house of our soul.

As far as it goes on sexy posing,that is the worst direction a photographer can ask from a model. It will just turn everything off. Sometimes we just need to look around and interpreted what the shooting is all about and we just know they want that specific sexy look, and that doesn't mean doing a whore-like face. Sometimes the sex pose just means that you need to use your best angle (you learn that when you model) than, squeeze your eyes, separate your lips, and don′t look inside the camera, look away from it.

- Who is/are your style inspirations?

I don′t have fashion icons as inspirations.What I do follow and inspires me the most are film directors filmographies/art-directions, videoclip styling and singers, architectures and unknown people on the streets, even its a metropolis city or a peasants villa.That means that my style comes from the repertoire I already told you.

Nowdays, I follow these people:
Michel Gondry,Lars Von Trier,John Waters,Michael Haneke,El Chavo del Occho (Mexican show),Nina Hagen,Mutantes (Brazilian band),Kraftwerk,Klaus Nomi,Arnaldo Antunes (Brazilian band),Grimes,Gloria Trevi (Mexican singer),Glodfrapp,Lady Gaga,Iris Apfel.

Last but not least, my boyfriend Marco .He enjoys so much dressing me up and I love it, because he is very good with it and he treats me like his mannequin. I think it's a fetish between us.

- How would you describe your personal style?

I would describe it as a chameleonic style. I say that because every year or season I notice that I start wearing different styles. I know that it's an unconscious process, I cannot tell you more than that or what's behind this. The only thing I can tell you is that it's a personal path everyone walks. That could result from the type of music you listen, the books you read, the movies you watch, the visual artists you follow.You know that music has the unique power of translating hues of colors, shapes and feeling but that's a characteristic of arts in general.

- Let's have a talk about the moustache! It's an obsession right? Kind of like a calligraphy signature tone on your face. Do you get beard-envy comments by guys?

My moustache is not and obsession for me. Actually its getting me tired to keep it all tight up. When you wake up its a mess, not to mention the people you kiss... it just ends up in being in the way! Of course I use products to help it stay up but it falls down all the time and it just looks messy.

I see a lot of men having this same moustache everyday on the streets, but what I notice is that each guy and each beard is a lot different from the rest. So I have to admit that I prefer myself "wearing" it. I don′t know, I don′t understand yet about all the fetish or the trend behind of a moustache. Someone should make a thesis about the origins of a moustache to find the roots and explain it to us a bit further.

The kids most of the times pointed out to me and started laughing, and I used to get stressed at first, but now I enjoy it when they do that. There is a recent Mexican comedian featured film called ¨Por Mis Bigotes¨, directed by Manuel Carames, that makes a perfect analysis about the universe of moustache. It′s about a kid that one day wakes up and had a moustache and his routine life changes completely!

- You got a time machine and you’re travelling back to your childhood, what you would say to the younger version of you?

It gets better and better, and also worst sometimes and more difficult, but still, keep the better.

- What’s your motto for life that you live by?

Do not turn your life in a routine. Keep your mind.

Officially published at  Drugi Par Ga?a  https://drugipargaca.blogspot.hr/2016/02/rafinirani-meandar.html