Landscape photographer Joaquin Zalazar says he has always had an insatiable curiosity and, as a result, he has a great many interests.
“I love learning. I studied international trade in college, but I like to do things on my own schedule,” says Zalazar. “I like to take things apart and see how they work.”
He explains that he is self-taught in most of his interests, including photography, cooking, guitar, piano and learning three languages. He also loves to travel and admits that it is hard to say whether he uses photography as a means to travel or if he travels as a way to take interesting photographs.
“When I travel, I don’t like traveling as a tourist. I want to go and learn. I like to go mix with the people and do what they do,” he says.
In countries he is familiar with, he has even served as a guide for out-of-town groups that he encounters, sometimes using the experience as a way to learn a new language.
While Zalazar says he has always had an interest in photography, it wasn’t until a friend bartered a high-end camera in exchange for a job that Zalazar had completed for him that photography captured his full attention.
With this new camera, he says he was able to take sharper photos and ones that even showcased movement. When his wife said she liked his work, he began to explore photography more deeply.
“I tried portrait, modeling, wedding and underwater photography. A little bit of everything,” he says.
But it was landscape photography that finally captured his interest.
“Nature is perfect. Every time I look, I see something different. Everybody sees different things. If you put two cameras so you and I are looking at the same thing, we will be seeing different things,” says Zalazar.
For example, with a sunrise, he explains, “When the sun shows a little bit, I’m gone already.
I’m waiting for the colors. That is the magic moment for me. It takes a lot of patience when you do this kind of picture.”
Zalazar says he likes the fact that with nature photography, you can keep going back until you get the shot you want.
“I don’t go with an idea. I need to see the place and then something comes to me of what I want. It might be once or twice or 30 times until I get what I’m looking for. I have a composition in my head of what I want and just go for that,” he explains, adding that he is an immersive photographer.
“I don’t get up before sunrise if I’m not going to be shooting because if I see the beautiful sky, it haunts me for months. And when I travel, I’m looking to be absorbed by the environment. If I want to be shooting first thing in the morning, I’m going to sleep right there, in the car, or on the floor. The reward will be capturing that initial moment for me.”
Looking at Zalazar’s photographs is as close to being there as he can capture.
“I want to have something real. Obviously, my camera won’t see all the colors that we can see, but I want to be as close to what I was looking at without editing or adding color,” he shares.
Zalazar, who was born in Argentina and has also lived in Spain, is currently living in this country, where he appreciates the diversity of the United States landscape. He has driven cross country several times, stopping along the way to photograph everything from waves crashing on the rocks as the sun sets behind the Golden Gate Bridge, to aspen trees in Colorado’s Maroon Bells, and water trickling over the rocks in Oregon’s Ramona Falls.
He says his dog was often his faithful traveling companion during those cross-country treks.
Zalazar currently has a solo exhibit called “Planet Soul Creative Photography,” on view through Nov. 1 at the Indian River County Courthouse. The exhibition is part of the Art in Public Places Program sponsored by the Cultural Council of Indian River County.
The exhibit features exquisite landscape photographs of the local area, including sunrises over the ocean and fog hovering over a dock fading into the mist of the Indian River Lagoon, and it also includes scenes from his travels across the United States.
Regarding one particular shot he was determined to get, Zalazar recalls that he woke up one day while living in Sebastian and went out to the lagoon, which was shrouded with fog. He went out over a period of four or five months in an attempt to get the shot he had in his mind’s eye before he was finally able to capture it. That photograph is among those on display at the courthouse.
“What I love about photography is going places. When I’m looking for something, once I have it, I don’t need to go to the same place again,” says Zalazar.
The next trip he has planned is to Norway, where he hopes to shoot the Northern Lights and the Milky Way. As part of that immersive trip, Zalazar and his wife, Holly Hewitt will stay in the fascinating, if a bit chilly, Ice Hotel of Tromso. After that, he plans to go to Antarctica.
