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# Andrejs Zavadskis: Twenty-Two Covers, Five Forbes Stories, One Restless Eye

European photographer based in Riga, Latvia — from magazine deadlines to desert horizons, Andrejs Zavadskis keeps moving towards the next frame.

Contents

The truck is coming. The dust is already here. Somewhere beyond the sand, a shape becomes a Dakar photograph — and then disappears.

Another day, another kind of pressure: a portrait for Forbes. No roaring engine. Just a person, a room and a moment that must say more than the room does.

Then a mountain. Kilimanjaro, 5,895 metres above the ordinary working day.

This is not a biography. It is a journey through the places one restless eye can take you. Andrejs Zavadskis, one of Latvia’s most popular photographers, has never made the world smaller by choosing just one subject.

Gumball 3000 rally — photo by Andrejs Zavadskis.

# Five stories. A much bigger audience.

A Vinted founder. A venture capitalist. Real estate. An Albanian billionaire. The infrastructure behind artificial intelligence. Different industries; the same photographer behind these five Forbes USA features:

Then the frames went travelling: Forbes México, Forbes Česko, Forbes Italia, Forbes España. The Remon Vos portrait sits in The Forbes Collection on Getty Images.

A portrait has to work before the reader reaches the second paragraph. That is the challenge: not merely recording a face, but making somebody stop.

# Twenty-two out of fifty

Four years. Fifty issues. Twenty-two photographed by Andrejs Zavadskis — more than any other photographer for Playboy Latvia. The Latvian edition ran from 2010 to 2014, and his work reached beyond its borders: three of his models appeared in foreign Playboy editions. Lingita Lina Bopulu won “Miss Talent” in Manila; Zane Helda finished third in the world at the Playmate of the Year final. In May 2014, Lauris Reiniks became the first man on a Playboy Latvia cover. Read Andrejs’s account of those years.

Playboy Latvia, Nr. 4, January 2011 — Oksana. Photo: Andrejs Zavadskis.

# The road does not wait

Dakar Rally, 2020. Formula 1 Singapore, 2024. Five Gumball 3000 rallies, and photographs in the official Gumball 3000 photo book. Add Porsches on frozen lakes in Swedish Lapland, and the meaning of a “working location” starts to stretch.

The connecting thread is anticipation. The photograph begins before the car enters the frame.

Burning Man — photo by Andrejs Zavadskis.

# Go where the map gets interesting

At Burning Man in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, the city itself is temporary. The portraits are not. Art cars, dust and encounters become a record of something that will never assemble in exactly the same way again.

In 2022 he climbed Kilimanjaro and filmed the journey to the summit. On the Danish feature Hvidstengruppen II in 2021, he photographed the making of somebody else’s story; one of his set photographs was selected by the Latvian Ministry of Culture for its official announcement.

Different worlds. The same question: what deserves to survive this moment?

# It began with the sky over Riga

In 2004, a compact camera and a tripod were enough. His fireworks photograph over the Riga Radio and Television Tower took first place in a Latvian State Radio and Television Centre competition.

A computer science background at Riga Technical University. The Riga Photo Club. A Master Craftsman’s Diploma from the Latvian Chamber of Crafts in 2008. A cover for South Wales YOURWEDDING. Wedding Photographer of the Year from the Latvian Wedding Photographers Association in 2009.

The milestones kept coming: third place in Fstoppers’ “This Was Difficult!” contest in March 2025. More than 7,000 photographs volunteered for Latvia’s 2025 School Youth Song and Dance Festival. Not every important audience is a magazine audience. Sometimes it is a child finding themselves on stage.

Andrejs Zavadskis, photographer, Riga.

# Make the picture. Share the knowledge.

Back home: one photo studio in Riga. Online: a blog running since 2008, and YouTube reviews with original RAW files so viewers can make up their own minds.

And ProPortfolio.pro, the free platform he founded for photographers, videographers, models, stylists and studios. The computer science and the photography were never separate lives. They are two ways of building something other people can use.

# Follow the next frame

The equipment changes. The locations change faster. The instinct that pointed a compact camera at Riga’s fireworks is still at work.

About Andrejs Zavadskis — European photographer based in Riga, Latvia, working since 2004 in commercial, editorial, portrait, automotive, event and travel photography across 50+ countries. Five Forbes USA features (2024–2026), 22 Playboy Latvia issues and the founder of ProPortfolio.pro.

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