As a native Italian born and raised in Belluno, Italy, Stefano Fabrizio Darold has always had a deep passion for the arts. After retiring from a twelve year-long professional volleyball career in the Italian professional league Fabrizio enrolled in The European Institute of Art and Design in Milan to study commercial and fine art photography.
Fabrizio was invited by his former teammate the olympic beach volleyball silver medalist Mike Dodd to Los Angeles.
While there he fell in love with Southern California and decided to stay to pursue his photography career.
He was privileged to connect and to work with some of the finest fashion and celebrity photographers in the business including: Alberto Tolot, Sante D’Orazio, Steve Klein, Mark Hannuer Gilles Bensimon, Dominique Goulliermot, Greg Gorman and Herb Ritts. The experience gained while working with these masters, has proven invaluable to Fabrizio’s success.
While in LA he had the opportunity to take pictures of young talent like:
Tyra Banks (supermodel and TV show host), Peta Wilson (star of TV show NIKITA and playboy centerfold), Erika Anderson (supermodel and star of movie Zandalee), Paula Abdul (singer superstar) , Echo Johnson (playboy centerfold), Amber Heard and many other young talented actors.
In 1993 Fabrizio traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico to complete an assignment for the famous Italian travel magazine – Gente Viaggi. The goal was to capture the beauty and the spiritual side of the Enchanted State and The City Different-Santa Fe.
His love for this small New Mexican town grew so quickly that he chose to call it home for almost 1 year.
Fabrizio and some other artists decided to move to Austin, Texas. Since establishing many contacts within the artistic community, Fabrizio has undoubtedly become the most well known headshot photographer in town. So much so that he was voted the Best Photographer by the Austin Chronicle in 1998 with the title:
“Headshots hot shots Fabrizio makes Austin actors look like Hollywood stars” and he continues to be the “go-to guy” for Austin actors and models.
Using soft, beautiful natural lighting as well as studio lighting, Fabrizio is able to bring out the beauty and the personality of each of his subjects in a way that
not many photographers are able to do.
Fabrizio just opened a studio in Maui and he is looking forward to create some magical images in tune with island’s natural beauty