Sedona News – Professional photographer Laurent Martres will present “Capturing the Essence of the American West – Themes and Techniques” at the Sedona Camera Club’s meeting which will be held online due to the risks presented by the Omicron variant of Covid-19. The meeting will start at 6 p.m. on Monday, January 31st.
Sedona Camera Club members will receive an email with instructions to access Laurent’s presentation via a Sedona Camera Club webinar. Guests may obtain a link to register for the webinar by sending an email to programchair@sedonacameraclub.org .
In Part 1 of his presentation, Laurent will discuss a number of shooting techniques photographers will find useful in their travels. He will introduce each technique by ’talking points’ and then will discuss using a few photographic examples. While these techniques can be applied to landscape photography in general, Martres will explain them with the context of the American Southwest.
After a break, Laurent will suggest a great number of photogenic locations organized in themes (slot canyons, deserts, fall colors, etc.) from the American Southwest – illustrated by his colorful images.
Martres was born in Paris, France. Thanks to an open‑minded family, he attended school in Paris, London, Barcelona, and several cities in Germany. Laurent says “A couple of years after college, I did the best thing a young person can do to widen his or her horizons and gain an understanding of our world and its wonderful diversity: I set out on a 20‑month trip around the world, photographing extensively.”
From 1976‑1981, he lived in Tokyo, teaching at Sophia University and working as a freelance photographer. His years in Japan profoundly influenced his life, philosophy and photography.
In 1982, Martres immigrated to the United States, settling in Southern California to create a firm specializing in software rights acquisition, as well as creation and management of corporate subsidiaries of European firms.
In 1999 he switched the company’s focus to book publishing, spending a great deal of time on the road writing and photographing. Constant exploration and photography of the Southwest resulted in the publication of Land of the Canyons in 1998, followed by his award-winning Photographing the Southwest series in 2005.
Laurent does a fair amount of world travel and sells his photography at a limited number of high-end art festivals, where he greatly enjoys interacting with patrons in his spacious mobile galleries. He served for a number of years as a member of the jury and artist advisor for the prestigious, #1-ranked in the nation, La Quinta Arts Festival.
Martres is pivoting from physical books to digital formats, and limiting his participation in art festivals to 10 or 12 per year, all in Southern California. Although he has been to 83 countries, his bucket list is still long and he eagerly awaits resuming his travels.
Presentations are free to members. The $5 guest fee will be waived for this webinar. The club intends to
return to face-to-face meetings as soon as possible. Club activities include monthly meetings and monthly
critiques. Visit sedonacamera.club to obtain more information about the club. Membership is $35/year.