Meet Photographer and digital artist Laura Ferreira
a Trin i
by Desiree Seebaran
Her critics say that she’s not a ‘real’ photographer. “People choose to be ignorant of the 1fact that I do photography AND digital art,” Laura Ferreira wrote in an email interview. “I can say it a million times but they refuse to listen. And so, I care not.” Her fan base is now global. She’s been published in Trini magazines like Scorch, and international mags like Digital Camera and PSD Photoshop. She even did a shot for the 2011 Halloween campaign of herbal liquor Jägermeister. Ferreira has photographed friends for personal conceptual shoots as well as commercial work. Local celebrities like Kes the Band and internationally known faces like Animal Planet’s Pete Bethune of Whale Wars have also stood in front of her lenses. This is huge success; especially for a 26-yearold with a five-year-old son who started teaching herself photography during her pregnancy. To her, her success is a Trinidadian triumph. “Many people who have seen my work didn’t know where Trinidad was. They have seen how diverse we are, and that we don’t live in giant coconuts. I also believe I am one of the few visual artists in Trinidad with a global internet following, and as it keeps growing, more and more people will see the work coming out of Trinidad.” If you look at her work, you understand why everyone is raving over Ferreira. Her digitally enhanced photos are lush with colour and texture, richly emotive and often sensual. She has chosen many natural settings for her work; places that are not easy to get to and with interesting stories, she said. The “amazing formation and emerald colours” at Gasparee Caves conjured up ideas of a mysterious, ethereal kingdom for local designer Meiling’s personal fashion set. Weatherworn, wiry Bethune looked equally at home in the spiritual atmosphere of Chaguaramas’ Bamboo Cathedral as he did sitting on a gritty boulder at Macueripe Beaches for Ferreira’s shoot. Ferreira met Bethune that morning and finished the shoot in two hours. “All the people I work with know the ‘Laura is very excited about this shoot’ face, which is me staring around the location with a grin, sputtering about fresh ideas, then maybe some skipping involved,” Ferreira joked. “All the ideas came to me on the drive there or when we reached the location. It’s just a matter of blocking out all people and sound for a moment, and focusing on the best composition.” She’s very good at tapping into what’s unique about her subject and their surroundings with her camera and enhancing that on her computer. And she’s extremely in tune with how her Trini heritage makes her work different from other photographers. “I think the colourful tones in my work come from growing up in the Caribbean. Our skies and land aren’t dull, our people aren’t dull, and our Carnival definitely isn’t drab,” Ferreira mused. She comes from a family or artists; according
Laura Ferreira
A shot for local fashion designer Meiling. Photo by Laura Ferreira
to her, there are definite similarities between her personal work, her mother’s attention to detail and sister’s use of colour. Said her sister Rebecca Foster of Ferreira, “She has that eye and that talent that she was just born with.” Ferreira has had two exhibitions of her work (both paintings and photography) in Trinidad and Tobago in 2003 and in 2009. Her website and Facebook page are both frequently updated; she’s quite a prolific artist, always popping up with a new project, blogging about shoots and her editing process in Adobe Photoshop CS5. She said that the need to create keeps nudging her forward, into greater things. “I have no set expectations for what my work will become. I only hope it remains exciting.”
The Ins & Outs of Trinidad and Tobago
57