# Andrejs Zavadskis: Rally Dust, Radio Contests and the Lens Forbes Keeps Calling

European photographer based in Riga, Latvia — and, by many measures, Latvia’s most popular photographer.

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A venture capitalist in front of the lens. Forbes waiting for the file. No retakes next week.

A convoy of supercars at Angkor Wat. Engines running. The light already moving.

A city in the Nevada desert that will be gone in days. One frame to prove it existed.

This is not a biography. It is a handful of moments from the camera of Andrejs Zavadskis — the kind that only happen once.

Paweł Chudziński for Forbes — photo by Andrejs Zavadskis.

# Forbes keeps calling

Five Forbes USA features. One photographer from Riga:

Thomas Plantenga, Vinted — a Forbes digital cover, April 2024.
Paweł Chudziński, Point Nine Capital — number one on the Midas List Europe.
Remon Vos, CTP — the Prague rooftop, April 2025.
Samir Mane — Albania’s first billionaire, that same week.
Alex Bouzari, DDN — August 2026.

Those pictures kept travelling: Forbes México, Forbes Česko, Forbes Italia and Forbes España. His portrait of Paweł Chudziński ran in the Midas List Europe 2024, and Remon Vos sits in The Forbes Collection on Getty Images.

A good portrait doesn’t decorate a story. It makes you trust it.

# The Playboy chapter

From 2010 to 2014 Playboy Latvia printed fifty issues — twenty-two of them shot by Andrejs Zavadskis, more than by any other photographer. In spring 2011 he sat on the jury of a Radio SWH × Playboy contest and shot its second round; the winner, Sintija Artimoviča, became the May 2011 cover. His rule for those shoots: “show a person more beautiful than they are.” Three of his models later appeared in foreign Playboy editions, and in May 2014 Lauris Reiniks became the edition’s first male cover. Read the story behind the 22 issues.

Playboy Latvia, Nr. 8, May 2011 — Sintija Artimoviča. Photo: Andrejs Zavadskis.

# Engines and horizons

Five Gumball 3000 rallies. The Dakar Rally in 2020. Formula 1 in Singapore in 2024. Porsches drifting on frozen lakes in Swedish Lapland.

Speed rewards one skill: knowing where the moment will be a second before it gets there.

Gumball 3000 rally — photo by Andrejs Zavadskis.

# Places that don’t wait

Burning Man in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. The 5,895-metre summit of Kilimanjaro in 2022, filmed on the way up. The set of the Danish film Hvidstengruppen II in 2021, where one of his stills became the Latvian Ministry of Culture’s official announcement image. More than 50 countries in total.

Burning Man, Black Rock Desert, Nevada — photo by Andrejs Zavadskis.

# Where it began

2004: a compact camera, a tripod and fireworks over the Riga Radio and Television Tower — first place in a Latvian State Radio and Television Centre competition.

Then: computer science at Riga Technical University, the Riga Photo Club, a Master Craftsman’s Diploma from the Latvian Chamber of Crafts in 2008, a cover and feature in South Wales YOURWEDDING, and Wedding Photographer of the Year 2009. In March 2025, third place in Fstoppers’ “This Was Difficult!” contest. In 2025, more than 7,000 volunteered photographs of Latvia’s School Youth Song and Dance Festival.

# Building for others

Today he runs one photo studio in Riga, writes a blog he started in 2008, speaks at Riga Photo Show, and publishes YouTube reviews with the original RAW files attached. He also founded ProPortfolio.pro — a free platform for photographers, videographers, models, stylists and studios.

# Find Andrejs online

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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