Rafil Thazali aka Raffle Thazzle Photography

By Miranda Yeoh  •  in Design
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Photography has become so accessible in the past 20 years that anyone can pick up a digital camera, master Photoshop and declare themselves a professional photographer-in the loosest sense of the word. Although that means that during the past 6 years we’ve seen a diversity of camera enthusiasts popping up by the truckload, underneath all that “rubble” are diamonds in the rough just waiting to be discovered. One such remarkable talent is Rafil Thazali. Armed with a Canon 7D and a kit lens, he has proven that it isn’t always about the equipment you own but the talent and passion you possess

Photography was never in Rafil’s scope to begin with, and he even failed 2 semesters at uni because of it. All that changed when he became the Creative Director and designer for a local premium motoring mag called GET@CAR, where he was working closely with the mag’s pool of photographers, visualising ideas and retouching raw photos. “Having met a few friends who are really talented and professional photographers really triggered that newfound interest [in photography]. Also websites with breathtaking references from professional photographers,” he says and states Joey Lawrence, Tim Tadder, Jill Greenberg and Oat Vaiyaboon as his favourite lens people.

He explains a little about the pictures he has contributed to JUICE, “The photos I picked here are special to me because of the effort that was put in to make the shoot a success, from conceptualising the ideas right to the final editing process-all of it is 110% effort from me and my team.”

What area of photography is your favourite?
Currently I’m into fashion, commercial and music photography.

Describe your dream photography job.
I want to be as lucky as photographer Chase Jarvis.

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I love doing illustrations; currently I’m into classic Japanese ones. Other than that, I enjoy planning trips and extreme activities with my buddies like white water rafting, paragliding, etc.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Owning a restaurant with a creative studio on the floor above it where the restaurant management takes place and where I can focus on photography. To be honest, I’m kinda tired of being a graphic designer already!

Do you have a favourite model/muse at the moment?
Yes, her name is Sarah Roberts from the States and she’s coming over here to have a photo shoot with me. It’s a dream come true!

What are your pet peeves about the local photography industry?
Perverted photographers, “kill the market” photographers and yeah…our local industry doesn’t support new talent because they are so comfortable with existing established photographers that they hired years ago. As a result, the industry doesn’t explore new ideas from new photographers.

If you weren’t a photographer, what would you be?
Clothing label owner/designer-there are plenty of ideas in my head now, haha!

Check out more of Rafil’s work at rafflethazzle.blogspot.com.

Images Raffle Thazzle Photography