Mo Fini is a photographer, author, filmmaker, traveler, textile expert, and philanthropist. He is the founder and head of Tumi Music, one of the world’s leading Latin music labels, and has been a voting member of the Grammy Awards organization for more than 30 years. He divides his time living and learning between England and Latin America.

Born into a Persian textile family in the desert town of Kashan, home to some of the world’s most famous carpets, he left in 1968 to study in England. His passion for travel took him to South America in 1978, where he fell in love with the land and its people and developed a deep affinity with the weavers of Peru and Ecuador. On returning to England, he founded Tumi, a small import business specializing in the crafts and textiles of Latin America.

In 1987, Mo Fini and his partner Lucy Davies toured South America by motorbike. The seven-month journey raised several thousand pounds for Amnesty International. Six years later, Mo led a filming expedition across the Peruvian Andes to document a remote community of Q’eros, often described as the last descendants of the Inca. The resulting film, ‘Q’eros: The Last of the Incas,’ was broadcast on international television, and in 1995 he co-authored ‘Arts and Crafts of South America,’ published for worldwide distribution by Thames and Hudson.

The charismatic traveler carries at least one camera wherever he goes in Latin America and has taken some 40,000 photographs of the continent. In 1990, a major exhibition of his work was shown at the Royal Photographic Society in Bath, UK, alongside the publication of his book ‘Portrait of Latin America.’

Founded in 1983, Tumi Music grew out of Mo’s discovery of the Andean band Rumillajta in Bolivia, and it has since built a catalog of more than 100 recordings and produced over 300 Latin CDs and videos. Among its releases is Susana Baca’s ‘Lamento Negro,’ which won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. More recently, Mo has turned to filmmaking as a director and producer: his feature film ‘Mambo Man’ has gone on to earn more than 100 international awards.

Mo Fini is the author of ‘Portrait of Latin America‘ and ‘Weavers of Ancient Peru,’ and, together with Lucy Davies, co-author of ‘Arts and Crafts of Latin America.’

Let us know what you think! Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest.