Marianne Rafter
Beauty and fashion photographer Marianne Rafter chased her dreams all the way from north of the Arctic Circle in Norway, where she was born, to the capital city of Oslo, to NYC´s Parsons The New School for Design. Her long migration certainly has paid off; since graduating, her luminous portraits, fashion spreads, food photography and travel imagery have appeared in top-tier magazines and books. Dividing her time between the U.S. and Europe, Rafter counts The New York Times, MoMA, Wine Spectator, Time Out, Eating Well, Fitness and the Manhattan Athletic Club among her stateside clients. She also works with European companies like Bie Produksjon and Proactima, both in Norway. Though the fashion and beauty world has a reputation for snobbery, Rafter is refreshingly honest about the advantage that being a lesbian in the industry has given her. ″Being gay is an asset,″ she reports, ″so I could not have found a more supportive and accepting environment to work in. [Because of that,] I´m able to express myself visually and to make a living from the freedom and joy of creativity. And, of course, photographing beautiful women is always a huge perk!″ -KL
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