2010 Poster Artist
Laurent Martres - 2010 Poster Artist
Laurent Martres was born in Paris, France and attended school in Germany, Spain and the U.K., ending up with degrees in modern languages and international business. A couple of years after college, Laurent set out on a two year trip around the world, eventually settling in Japan, where he became a permanent resident. He spent five years in Tokyo, simultaneously teaching at Sophia University and pursuing his research on the Japanese sport/art of Sumo, which culminated in the publication of his first book. Laurent immigrated to the United States in 1982 and founded Graphie Int'l, Inc. - a small business that, over the years, has allowed him to exercise his creativity in numerous directions as he stayed ahead of shifting trends in software development, multimedia production, and the internet.
Chapel at Dusk
In the late nineties, he permanently switched his focus from the software industry to a full-time career as a fineart photographer and publisher. Laurent is the author of four highly-praised books: Land of the Canyons and three volumes of the Photographing the Southwest series. He is also the publisher of several more. Over forty five thousand photography enthusiasts from around the world enjoy his books and are inspired by his images. Laurent dedicates a lot of time, focus, and passion to his photography and his travels around the world. This allows him to continually refine his production and achieve excellence in his main area of expertise: landscapes. Laurent's work ranges from starkly minimalist compositions to complex abstracts, his years in Japan having had a profound influence on his sense of esthetics and his vision of form and color. This is reflected in his style, which is more akin to Maxwell Parish's glazing than to photography with its combination of bold colors, unique textures and striking sense of depth.
