Pasha Rafiy - People and Places

Pasha Rafiy's portraits and landscapes are based on intuitive personal choices. Although the history of the locations, but also the biographies of the people photographed, may seem incongruous or anonymous, every image nevertheless tells a story. For his portraits, Pasha Rafiy invites his subjects to find their place in a landscape that is familiar to them, places that the photographer did not previously know. With very particular shooting choices, a certain distance with regard to his subjects, and full-length framing, the subjects of these portraits are isolated in a certain sense, detached in the midst of their environment. By decontextualizing in this way, Pasha Rafiy succeeds in giving a timeless character to his images. Whether anonymous, known or even famous: Pasha Rafiy's subjects are immobilized for an instant and photographed as if completely isolated from the surrounding landscape. They seem to be outside time, and yet at the centre of the action. These images illustrate a paradox that questions the concept of fame.