Name: Rafael Fazano

Location: I’m from São Paulo, Brazil, where I’m based now. But I’m always traveling around looking for hills that have never been touched by our urethane! Soon I want to move to Australia to study and of course, bomb hills with my Aussie friends!

Years skating: Over 2 years.

Years shooting: Since I was a kid I played with cameras but I started to work professionally in 2008.

Luis Lins

How did you get into photography?: The search for what makes people happy is constant: it can be in an instant, like a love at first sight, or last a lifetime. After so much time working with advertising, daily seeking a creative vision to customers, I decided to work in a photographic studio where I had all the technical basis. After some years working with the best Brazilian photographers I decided to go it alone, combining my passions: art, photography and action sports.

What inspires you?: Having new ideas is what most inspires me. When I have a creative insight I get excited to start work! I also look for inspiration looking for new photography concepts and by looking other photographers work. I love Bob Martin’s pics, for me he is the master of sports photography!

Christie Aleixo

What kind of gear do you like to shoot with?: I’m working now with the Canon 7D. I love everything about this camera setup and the weight is very light comparing to other similar models. When you shot sports this make difference. I use basically 3 lenses: 150-500mm/ 24-70mm/ 16-35mm, this enables me to do all kinds of photos. I also use, when necessary, a Canon Speedlite 580EX. I like shooting with 4×5 and 6×7 cameras too.

Any advice to fellow photographers?: I’d like to say: Be original and make your ideas happen. Create your own vision of anything that you are photographing, this is the key to have a good and unique work!

Luis Lins

Favorite story behind a photo: We have here in São Paulo a place called “Pico do Jaraguá”, a protected park that’s a closed hill to downhill since a guy had an accident there. You need 6 minutes to get down the hill and to bomb it is extremely necessary to be a skilled skateboarder: you can range 80km/h, with a lot of tight corners, animals on the road and water in the road.

I was invited by RATOS CREW to register their authorized session in there. I decided to go on the car’s trunk to shoot. Ow man, the skateboarders are faster than the car in the corners and while photographing I was saying to the driver “FASTER! FASTER!” and we were faster than the car could go, we started to drift every corner. The result: I got down the hill with a lot of pain because I was sitting in the car’s trunk for 6 minutes as if in a washing machine and I did not got a good photo! Hahaha.

Gabe Gwynne

Who have you shot for/where has your work been published?: I’m a luck guy to have known the Loaded & Orangatang guys (special thanks to Adam Colton & Pablo Castro). They were my first clients outside Brazil and they always left me free to work on creative shots, they believed in my capability. The work I did with them has opened lots of opportunities to shoot for many magazines and all other brands I’m working with nowadays.

MAGAZINES: Concrete Wave, Raus!, Skateboarder’s Journal, WSSM, Surfing Handbook, Wheelbase Mag, Go Outside and I hope Skate[Slate] soon :)

CLIENTS: Loaded Boards, Orangatang Wheels, Risch, roll-laden.net, Cult Wheels, Lush Longboards, Ibrasurf

I’d like to use the opportunity to thank all these guys and all people that support me (riders, publishers, clients, friends and now Skate[Slate]). You all are part of what my work is today.

Cesar Leite

Contact info:

www.rafaelfazano.com

Facebook: Action Sports Photographer

Twitter: @rafaelfazano

Cesar Leite

Justus Zimmerly

Born in Chicago and raised on the flat Canadian prairies, it wasn’t until moving to Ontario for school in 2005 that Justus got a taste for riding skateboards down hills. Since then it’s been a bit of an obsession. He graduated with a degree in Film Studies, but spent as much time focussed on skateboarding as he did on studying. Now he’s living the good life in Oakland, California, riding his motorcycle and working as Editor-in-chief for Skate[Slate].

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