About the host

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At the age of 18, Raphael Avigdor travelled to Europe with a well-known fashion photographer as an assistant. He loaded cameras with film, helped to hold reflection screens, and often shot backup over the photographer's shoulder. It was then that Raphael realized his strong passion for photography. At 19, already on his own, Raphael travelled to the Amazons to shoot the indigenous tribes of Northern Peru, Colombia and Brazil. Ever since then, Raphael has been traveling the world shooting different cultures, and portraits, always looking to capture a story in his work.

His most recent trips include 6 weeks trekking in Nepal, arriving to Base Camp at Mt. Everest, and then to Tibet, and the Trans-Mongolian Railroad from Lhasa, Tibet to Beijing China. Other recent trips include Egypt, Colombia, Cuba, Kiev, Kyrgyzstan, and China. He recently returned from six weeks in Tulum and the Jungles of Belize, and in 2016, scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. More recently he was in Cebu, Philippines where he was asked to be a judge on the panel of the Cebu International Film Festival. Another recent trip was to the outskirts of the Sahara desert in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco where he rode on a camel caravan while staying with the Bedouin Tribes of Berber descent in their tents.

After seeing a documentary film at the Hamptons International Film Festival called THE EAGLE HUNTRESS, Raphael was captivated with the images, mountains, horses, tapestries, ceremonial dress, and of course the Eagles and he dashed off to the border of Mongolia and Kazakhstan to shoot THE 2017 EAGLE FESTIVAL. He subsequently published his photographic book titled MONGOLIA.

His last adventure in November of 2018 took him to the Sahara Desert to the country of NIGER, where he with an eclectic group of professionals including a renowned National Geographic photographer, a London Primitive Art Gallerist, a Poet, the Minister of Tourism of Niger, and others, to 4 X 4 through the Sahel Desert Belt on the Southern Sahara Desert through Niger, mostly with intent to photograph the Neolithic period Rock Art carved into stones by the historic indigenous inhabitants of the Sahara. He found his camera pointed more to the tribes, clans and people of Touareg descent.  His work has been exhibited at the Lawrence Gallery in East Hampton, N.Y., Private Exhibitions, The Spectrum Miami Art show, Art Market + Design in Bridgehampton, N.Y., The SEAFAIR MEGAYACHT Art show and at Art Boca Raton. Recently Raphael was featured in a Family group show alongside his mother and sister at the CASTLE FITZJOHNS gallery on Manhattans Lower Eastside. Raphaels next show is again at Art Market + Design being held August of 2022 in Bridgehampton, New York where his work is represented by the prestigious Rebecca Hossack Gallery of London

In addition to still photography, Raphael has directed and shot two full feature films and has acted as an executive producer and producer of various other full feature documentaries notably BLUE GOLD, a history of the blue jean, and most recently THE MAN WHO SAVED THE WORLD, a film that recently won a Danish academy award. Another Recent film named THE ROAD MOVIE just won the red carpet title of best documentary at the National Film & Television awards in Los Angeles. Raphaels latest film launched on International Womans Day in March of 2022 is called CALENDAR GIRL, a documentary about fashion icon Ruth Finley who controlled Manhattans couture fashion calendar for over 70 years. Raphael is a well-rounded person, who pursues careers in writing, music, stone sculpture, and who speaks 6 languages fluently. Raphael is a Samba Drummer often performing with BOOM samba school. Raphael resides in Southampton, New York.