Raffaele Monepaone was born on May 5, 1980 in Vibo Valentia. Since he was a little boy he has been fascinated by the world of photography. When he was 12, he started to attend classes at a family photo studio, where he learned a special type of photographic culture. During his apprenticeship with his first teacher, he mostly got involved into technical and theoretical aspects, whereas during his second apprenticeship, when he immediately took a 35 mm in his hand, his talent started to show at its fullest and he started his way of professional growth and research, constantly perfecting himself and turning eventually to the genre of reportage and anthropological photography. His first project, on which he still continues to work, is a real hymn to life. Life is the project, in which he tells us his story through his characters’ eyes, faces, hands, touched by the time, in which he shows us real Calabria. La Repubblica newspaper has dedicated an online photo gallery to this project.

For about ten years, he has been cooperating with the local titles of the Calabria Ora and the Quotidiano della Calabria, has been invited to supervise the photographing of Tonno Callipo Volley sports club. In 2007, together with a journalist Francesco Mobilio, he published a sizable documentary volume 3 Luglio 2006, an exciting and shocking photographic record of the flood at Vibo Valentia; the proceeds for the sales of the volume were given to the population affected by the flood. His photographs are used by various publishing houses as book covers for successful novels. He is the author of multiple expositions, his most recent one was presented at the Etna Photo Meeting in Catania. He is respected and appreciated by his colleagues, professional photographers, who refer to him for his workshops. Among the most recent of them, is the one of the prestigious manufacturer of Leica photo cameras, specially marked by FIOF 2015 He is the winner of the Affordable Art Fair 2015, the winner of the special Talent Prize 2015, which eventually gave him an opportunity to exhibit one of his works at the Pietro Canonica museum in Rome.He is a tirelss researcher of timeless expressions and atmospheres, emphasised by his unique monochromic vision.

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