Raymond Sagapolutele is an Aotearoa-born Sāmoan artist with family ties to the villages of Fatuvalu in Savai'i and Saluafata in Upolu, Samoa. Sagapolutele picked up the camera in 2003 and began a self-taught photography journey that would see him work with editorial publications Back to Basics and Rip It Up as a staff photographer as well as submissions to the NZ Herald and Metro Magazine. Sagapolutele has exhibited images in a range of group and solo exhibitions both locally and internationally. Sagapolutele honed his style of documentary street photography as one of several photographers in the locally formed and internationally connected graffiti creative collective known as TMD. He is a founding member of the ManaRewa art collective based at Nathan Homestead in Manurewa and alongside senior members helps to tutor and support the local arts community. Sagapolutele completed his Masters in Visual Arts passing with first-class honours and received the Deans Award for Excellence in Postgraduate study from AUT.
“Make art and don’t worry about what you think other people want,” was the advice photographer Raymond Sagapolutele’s uncle gave him. Sagapolutele reflects on that mantra in the collective work of The Most Dedicated (TMD).