About
Raphael Grizilli (Guarulhos, SP) is a visual artist, photographer, and designer, working in design and graphic arts since 1999. His career began in his teenage years, combining technical studies with work in traditional publishing houses, and evolved into an artistic practice that crosses boundaries between visual experimentation, intimate narrative, and documentary record.
His relationship with photography developed in parallel with design, initially through the use of non-digital techniques for image manipulation, exploring materiality and manual gesture as part of the creative process. Later, he turned the camera on himself, documenting domestic life, intimacy, and the complex relationship between human beings, the city, and nature.
In 2021, he launched the independent publication GRIZ, a photozine with no fixed periodicity that merges editorial design with authorial photography, functioning as a creative and collaborative laboratory and reaffirming his interest in printed photography and independent publishing.
The following year, he took part in the group exhibition Portrait – The Human Figure during the Interfoto Itu Festival (2022), presenting works from two of his own self-portrait series.
In 2023, he consolidated his most significant authorial work to date: Doze Avos, a series of 12 photographic zines, each dedicated to a month of the year and composed of images produced exclusively within that period, resulting in an emotional cartography of his relationship with the city. That same year, he participated in the exhibition Conexão Visceral, held at Galeria Beco Visceral in the Paraisópolis favela, and had three photographs selected for the publication Minhocão de cima a baixo (Editora Vertigem). He was also responsible for the graphic design and participated as a photographer in Revista Bulb #1 (2023).
In 2024, he was part of the Meio Ambiente exhibition at the Paranapiacaba Photography Festival, took part in the group show at the São Paulo Photography Festival, and participated in Ruas, presented by Ateliê Oriente during the Paraty em Foco Festival. That same year, he continued his collaboration with Revista Bulb #2, signing the graphic design and contributing photographs, and was also featured in issues 1 and 2 of the MODO-B publication, both as photographer and graphic designer.
His work weaves together personal memory and observations of everyday life, blending influences from design and black-and-white photography with dense, high-contrast atmospheres. With a gaze that moves between the documentary and the poetic, he creates images that explore isolation, identity, and the experience of living — and moving — on the margins of the metropolis.
