Rames Xelhuantzi, beauty, fashion, color

Rames Xelhuantzi is a colorful Mexican fashion photographer. He has worked for the biggest magazines including Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, Esquire, as well as for brands such as Dior and Revlon. His photographs deliver colors and lightworks that are astonishing, alive, flamboyant; many adjectives that make up his signature, infused with Mexican art and culture. Rames is also committed to preserving our planet through his project #TheBeautyMovement. He wants to raise awareness of people through beauty and art to preserve the magnificence of our planet.

Maison Sensey: How did it begin?

Rames Xelhuantzi: I was born in Mexico and I grew up in a town called Cholula, which is known for its great pyramid. At the age of 19, I took part in a cultural exchange in Zürich, Switzerland. During this year abroad, I was dazzled by the magnificent nature of this country and the architecture of its cities. It was also the first time in my life that I saw the landscape change with such beauty with each season: green fields in summer, orange-yellow trees in autumn, white snow in winter and colorful flowers in spring.

At the time, I had a very simple camera and I was very excited about taking pictures of beautiful landscapes and of my friends from the exchange group. I already liked taking pictures of the girls during our trips to other cities or in fantastic mountain landscapes. I selected one especially for Maison Sensey.

I did not know back then that these pictures were my very first steps as a fashion photographer. I remember that when I took pictures of my friends, I always tried to frame them in the best possible way, to get a beautiful composition with the background or the landscape. I was also making sure that there were no water bottles or other objects disturbing the scene.

I was naturally composing my first fashion photographs without knowing that a few years later, it would become my career and my greatest passion. Creating images and telling stories allows me to connect to my soul and express my emotions. Fashion and beauty photography are a way of unifying and sharing my appreciation of fashion design: make-up, hairstyle, feminine beauty, shapes and unique locations… I love working with talented people who share the same passion for what they do.

Is it possible to capture elegance in a picture?

Elegance starts with a harmony between several elements of the picture. It can be conveyed through the model’s attitude, the style of their clothes, their make-up or even their hairstyle. Then comes the eye of the photographer who captures all these elements and shares them in the pictures.

What are your sources of inspiration, and who inspires you?

I can be inspired by several things, most of the time by the beauty of a woman, by a landscape or a place that I find captivating, beautiful or unique. I often draw inspiration from movies or from looking at the way other artists and photographers work. Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Horst P. Horst, Vincent Peters, Eugenio Recuenco and Mario Testino are the photographers who inspired me the most.

Colors seem to be very important in your photographs, how do you work with them?

Colors are part of my culture; it is an essential part of arts and crafts in Mexico. Using colors in my photographs comes very naturally to me, even though I also enjoy black and white. Some of the photographers I look up to, such as Peter Lindbergh, Richard Avedon, Erwin Blumenfeld, use black and white in their work. I also really like the lighting techniques from the 40s and 50s as well as those used in black and white movies.

Which photographic techniques do you use?

It is hard to say because I do not use specific techniques. I have used many different techniques along my career. I think my automatic camera is very versatile because I can light up and create scenes through the use of stroboscopes, tungsten, HMI lights that provide natural light, but also experiment with different types of light such as lasers.

In terms of photographic techniques, I used stereoscopic photography (3D) for years to develop it. I built my own system with two digital reflex cameras connected to synchronization transmitters.

For most pictures, I use my Nikon D800. On other projects, especially when I’m doing beauty or hairstyle campaigns, I use a PhaceOne medium-format camera to capture more details and get a higher quality because most pictures will be printed in large format on billboards and in department stores.

Which photographs are you most proud of?

The pictures I am proud of are mostly the ones that require a lot of work with complex productions, and sometimes it’s the result of the image that I like. There are also pictures that I can look at many years later and still like as much, those that make me feel good or remind me of a great memory, pictures that I enjoy looking at over and over.

Which pictures of Paris would you like to take?

A few years ago, I made a campaign for a Mexican fashion brand at the Alexandre III bridge. Due to a delay in the production of the collection, we had to shoot in early winter. It was very cold for shooting and moving around. I would love to come back to Paris in spring to see the full-blown beauty of this season and create a Spring Fashion Story at the Alexandre III bridge.

Which project are your currently working on?

I just started working on a meaningful project, and I am happy to share it with you. It is called #TheBeautyMovement. It is a will to create a better world through beauty, to try and raise awareness of people about the magnificence and greatness of our planet, so that we can give her more respect and admiration.

I want to inspire people, through photography and art, to take care of our planet, starting with simple actions like picking up garbage on the streets, wherever you are. It consists in recycling plastic bags and bottles and using as few materials that do not disintegrate in the ground as possible. It is about turning waste into art.

My desire and my mission are to inspire others to see the beauty and magnificence of our world. I seize this opportunity to invite all the people and organizations who share this vision to join #TheBeautyMovement in order to have a positive impact in the world through art and photography.

Interview by Barbara Sensey 
Paris
Art photographs by Rames Xelhuantzi in limited edition and frame edition available in our Online Store.