Raafi Rivero : blog

Fruit, Fish, and Stone

On Saturday morning young Morales and I hit the streets to see what the city had to offer. There were food products and carved statues.

It only took us five months since shooting… but we got it done. Here’s the video for Thaddeus Clark’s Downtown/Connect. The (banging) song is available for download at hellabasic.com. Special shots to my editor Jason Morales who slogged through many weekends and evenings to help bring this to the light of day.

Jazz in Milwaukee

The guy in the top picture’s shirt matched the colors of the stage lighting for the jazz performers in the bottom shot. It was a fun couple of hours. And I’m now able to say that I’ve set foot in the state of Wisconsin.

Three from Chicago

Big, heavy city, that Chicago. My movie played on opening night of a film festival there. After that it was all long walks and picture taking, with a cubs game and Harold’s fried chicken thrown in for good measure.

Drunk Tongue, promo

Here’s a promo I directed for the Wu-Tang Clan. The most recent album is called Legendary Weapons. Cop that disc, nahmean!

Shop Talk

After shooting Joe Carini’s beautiful carpets, me and Scott talked about the business of creativity. Booming as it is, there are always doubts, cracks. Which is when you gird yourself up with friends and conversation. And, in this case, french fries.

Chinatown Sundown

Chinatown remains one of my favorite places to shoot photographs in the city. Maybe it’s because it feels dense and gritty the way New York is supposed to feel. Or maybe it’s because of how intensely foreign it feels at times. On Saturday, because of Manhattanhenge, the streets were particularly fetching.

Two Portraits

Thursday was a good one for shooting portraits of “L” people at the office. Liz needed a grown-up photo for an upcoming book show and asked if I’d take one — which I did, in exchange for beer. Later that day, Logan stopped by and the afternoon light was just too much to pass up. Lucky me.