Rafael Vega

14

63

Years Active

Countries

Leica M11

Portra 400

Primary Camera

Film Stock

BIOPGRAPHY

I grew up between two countries and never quite stopped moving. My father is Moroccan, my mother Spanish — I learned early that identity is something you negotiate at borders, not given at birth. I trained in Fine Arts in Madrid, then spent my twenties on overnight trains and cargo boats, shooting on film because I couldn’t afford to waste a frame. I still shoot like that. Every frame costs something. I am not a neutral observer. I don’t believe neutrality exists. But I do believe in rigor, in respect, and in staying long enough that people forget I’m there.

“I don’t want my photographs to comfort you. I want them to stay with you — the way a stranger’s face does, glimpsed through a train window.”

PRESS

National Geographic

6-page feature, Apr 2024

TIME Magazine

Cover Story, Aug 2023

Le Monde

Photo Essay, Mar 2023​

The Guardian

Features, Jan 2022

AWARDS

World Press Photo — Documentary

2019

Pictures of the Year International — Nominee

2021

Leica Oskar Barnack Award — Shortlist

2023