Ruven Afanador

Untitled #9 from Ruven Afanador "Sombra" series, silver gelatin print 2/5

2003

The flamboyant, imaginative photographs of Colombian-born Ruven Afanador include dramatic celebrity portraits and several series that play with beauty standards and the conventions of gender. Afanador has produced books based on his fine art photography that document bullfighters, flamenco dancers, and Indigenous cultures in Colombia Hijas del Agua, his series capturing the traditions, attire, and environments of 26 Indigenous communities in Colombia, was the subject of a 2021 exhibition at the National Museum of Colombia in Bogotá. Afanador’s book, Ángel Gitano: The Men of Flamenco, includes high-contrast, black-and-white images such as Eduardo Guerrero Gonzales “Cortijo Santa Teresa de Hornia” (2012) that depict male flamenco performers in somewhat unusual costumes and expressive poses. The series followed up on his 2009 Mil Besos series about female flamenco dancers. Afanador’s editorial work includes portraits of President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, and has appeared in numerous publications such as New York magazine, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Elle, and The New Yorker.