RIOCAM: REVIVING THE ART OF THE BEDROOM-WALL POSTER

Miami-based photographer and artist Camilo Rios, known professionally as Riocam, creates surreal artworks that place the world's most iconic supercars alongside high fashion and the feminine form. His work draws a direct line back to the supercar bedroom-wall posters of the 1980s and 1990s, the kind that showed a Ferrari 288 GTO or Lamborghini Countach at impossible angles against electric skies, except Riocam replaces the airbrushed fantasy with cinematic photography that is formally rigorous and commercially exhibited. The result is a body of work that has appeared in Vogue, Elle, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, and Grazia Paris, and that sells as fine art through galleries and as limited edition books through TheArsenale.

Where the Bedroom-Wall Poster Tradition Comes From

Riocam has spoken directly about the two images that shaped his artistic vision: a red Ferrari 288 GTO pinned to his childhood bedroom wall, and Richard Avedon's iconic photograph of Nastassja Kinski draped with a gray boa constrictor. The tension between those two images, machine precision versus organic sensuality, became the creative DNA of his practice. His second book, the RIOCAM Car and Fashion Book, Volume 2, is the fullest expression of that DNA to date: a 10-year retrospective that moves through rare cars, fashion houses, and photographic techniques accumulated over a decade of Miami-saturated work.

The Visual Language: Colour, Palm Trees, Art Deco, and Power

Riocam's commercial work for Off-White, TAG Heuer, The Webster, Miami Design District, Eres Paris, and L'Oreal defined the visual language of Miami fashion photography through the 2010s. His influences run through 1980s cinema, Art Deco architecture, blue skies, and the particular quality of South Florida light. Translating those influences from editorial fashion work to automotive art meant finding a way to photograph cars with the same psychological charge that fashion photography applies to the human body. Riocam found that register by treating cars as characters rather than objects: the Gucci Diablo series, for example, positions a Lamborghini Diablo not as a static product shot but as a presence in a scene.

Riocam's Work Available at TheArsenale

TheArsenale carries a curated selection of Riocam's fine art prints and books. The Riocam Chairs and Flairs print and the Riocam Gucci Diablo both demonstrate the range of his practice, from furniture and interior scenes to the most iconic supercars in automotive history. The Riocam Straman 512M Mare brings a Ferrari 512M into his characteristic coastal setting.

A Decade of Work Distilled: The Volume 2 Book

For those who want the full context of Riocam's practice in a single object, the RIOCAM Car and Fashion Book Volume 2 is the authoritative reference. Spanning ten years of commercial and personal work, it traces the evolution from early fashion editorial to the mature automotive art that has made Riocam one of the most distinctive voices working at the intersection of car culture and fine photography today. Each page is a case study in how design, engineering, fashion, and femininity can be made to speak to each other through a single image.

Photo: Classic Driver Magazine / Maxim