Our Co-Chairs for the Talking Photography Lecture Series are preparing an exciting lineup of presentations for the second-half of the 2024-2025 Season. Stay tuned!

Valérie Jardin is an award-winning French photographer who has developed a unique style that is both evocative and authentic. Her work is characterized by a strong sense of narrative, capturing candid moments that reveal the human experience in all its complexity and beauty. With a discerning eye for composition and a keen understanding of light and shadow, Valérie Jardin creates emotionally charged photographs of everyday moments.She has been shooting at 23mm with the Fujifilm X100 series for over 10 years. Currently using the X100VI.

Valérie's work is also marked by her commitment to teaching and mentoring other photographers. Through international workshops, online courses, conferences, exhibits, podcasts and over a dozen books, she shares her knowledge and experience with others.

Louie Palu is a photographer and filmmaker whose work has examined social political issues, such as human rights, conflict, and climate change for 30-years. Louie’s projects have been selected for a Guggenheim Fellowship, Arnold Newman Prize and World Press Photo Award. His work has examined topics such as the drug war in Mexico, conflicts in Afghanistan and Ukraine, Guantanamo Bay and changing geopolitics in the Arctic. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Figaro and El Pais. His work is held in numerous collections including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and National Gallery of Art. His films have screened at many festivals including at Hot Docs and the Munich Documentary Film Festival. 

Curiosity and creativity are watchwords for Felicity. Her photographic focus is on the intimate and often abstracted image that captures the essence and intricacies of nature and rural landscapes.

Felicity's photography is exhibited frequently in galleries and public spaces. Her work is in private collections across Canada and internationally and in the permanent collections of the Lennox and Addington Museum and Archives, and the Art Gallery of Northumberland. Her Photo Essays and photographic images have been published in the Canadian Camera and PhotoEd magazines, and she has also published a number of photography books. She is a member of the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, and the Canadian Association of Photographic Arts.

Zeeshan’s passion for photography began at a young age and has only grown stronger with time, leading him to explore different corners of the globe in search of unique moments and stories to tell. He believes in the power of storytelling. Through his images, he hopes to share the diverse and beautiful stories of the world with others, inspiring them to see things in a new light and to appreciate the beauty in the ordinary.

Gérard Uféras is a French photographer living in Paris, France. He began his photographic journey in 1984 working with the French newspaper Liberation, for which he produced numerous reports and portraits, and which organized his first exhibition.

He participated in the creation of the Vu agency in 1986, and he regularly publishes in the French and international press.

In addition to photojournalism and his portrait work he participates in advertising campaigns and pursues personal research projects which are exhibited in many countries.

He published more than sixteen books, and is a recipient of numerous international awards, including World Press Photo Award in 1997.

He has exhibited his work around the world, from Europe to Asia and North America.

He counts Dior, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Givenchy and many others as his clients and collaborates with numerous publications including, among others, Paris Match, Libération, Le Figaro, and The New York Times.

Todd Murrison currently lives with his family in Durham Region.

Before retiring in 2020, he spent 36 years in advertising as a freelance illustrator working with numerous North American ad agencies. His specialty was drawing storyboards for TV commercials. In 1998, Todd traded in his markers, pencils and paint brushes and went 100% digital, drawing with a Wacom tablet using Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop.

He is the author of ‘Marker Rendering’ (Walter Foster Publishing, 1994) and was a part-time art instructor at different colleges in Toronto including Ontario College of Art and Design (OCADU), George Brown College, Humber College and the International Academy of Art and Design. 

Todd purchased his first DSLR in 2013 and his preferred genres of photography are Photoshop composites, landscape, and architecture photography.

His motto is “Trying to see things differently.”