Professional photographer Laurent Martres will present at the meeting of the Sedona Camera Club starting at 6 p.m. on Monday, January 31st, at the Sedona Creative Life Center, 333 Schnebly Hill Road, Sedona. Doors open at 5:30.
Due to Covid-19 concerns about safety practices for indoor events, attendees are required to wear masks. The Sedona Creative Life Center allows for social distancing and the club will not serve refreshments to further mitigate risk. For additional safety, we request attendees to be fully vaccinated.
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, hosted by the Sedona Camera Club, are free to members. There is a $5 fee for guests. Local photographers are encouraged to join to support bringing high-quality speakers to promote interest in photography and develop photographic skills. Membership costs $35 for the whole year. For more information on the Sedona Camera Club, go to sedonacamera.club.
