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Ruandan-born Jaspe Azabe is combining her studies in Communication with her passion for fashion and photography

When Jaspe Azabe, who has spent most of her life in the Netherlands, arrived in Spain for the first time three years ago, the first challenge she had to overcome was learning to speak the language. “I came to study one of my passions, Communication, at an international university,” she says smiling broadly. Today, the Ruandan-born Dutch national speaks Spanish perfectly and has come to admire Segovia, the city that has been her home and where she has studied at the IE University. “What I love about Segovia is that I immediately felt at home: I have a lot of favorite places, but my first glimpse of the aqueduct, perhaps one of my earliest memories, was spectacular,” she says.

Ms Azabe is currently applying her communication skills to two disciplines that are very important to her: photography and fashion. “Fashion is an art that I want to know in all its aspects, not just those that set the trends, or design, fabrics or how to dress stylishly, but also to get to know people who work in the fashion world, and above all, to understand what motivates people to work in it,” she says.

Photography is Ms Azabe’s link to fashion. “I began to study photographic technique, to learn how to use a camera, but over time I realized I had to know something about the people I was portraying; I learned that each photograph spoke of the subject I was pointing the camera at as much as about myself; this makes each session a wonderful adventure.”

Her interest in fashion and photography will soon be displayed in an innovative project that Ms Azabe is putting all her energy into, and that she has called Reckless, “which will soon see the light of day and that I want to be a surprise.” Her idea is based on the creation of an interactive space where fashion is on show and can be discussed, but from a personal perspective, and above all, by bringing it to the wider public. For the moment, some of Ms Azabe’s photography can be seen using some of her fellow students at IE University as models.

Segovia is the ideal place to explore her artistic curiosity, says Ms Azabe. She says that each day she explores the city with her camera in search of inspiration that she always finds. “I love the sun when it bathes the city in the morning, and the amazing colors of the early evening.”

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