-Ramak Fazel

Born in Iran and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Ramak Fazel has always travelled. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and then moved to New York where he studied photography and graphic design. In 1994 he moved to Milan, where he lived and worked for 15 years.

He has worked in conjunction with various European and Japanese publications and with cultural institutions, and he has contracted with the magazine Domus as a photographer since 1996. He has collaborated with several prestigious European companies, such as Flos, Vitra and Desalto. He has lectured and conducted seminars at several universities, including the SUPSI and the Design Academy of Eindhoven (NE). Fazel’s photography and personal projects take an interest in Iran, Italy, Japan and the United States. His work concentrates on the concept of cultural identity and how it relates to our notion of “place” and “origin.”

His artistic vision expresses itself primarily through portraits and “settings” of the human condition, and Fazel’s photographs tend to contextualize a subject within the frame of his or her own environment.

Ramak’s most recent work, entitled “49 State Capitols” narrates his road trip across 49 cities of the United States. The project provides a narrative of the search of an increasingly complicated concept of American identity, and is articulated through the exhibition of 49 photographs and vintage postcards which have been re-interpreted by the artist. At the beginning of 2008 Fazel exhibited his project “49 State Capitols” at Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City (www.storefrontnews.org). Ramak Fazal completed his MFA at the California Institute of the Arts.