What started as a “girl’s week” in Rwanda with several friends in 2003 became a trip of a lifetime for photojournalist and travel photographer, Laura Pedrick.
Pedrick will discuss her trip, offering insights and serendipitous connections, during a presentation of her Rwandan photos Feb. 18, from 1-2:30 p.m., at the Kalmia Club, 39 York St., Lambertville, N.J.
The event is free and open to the public with a $10 suggested donation. A selected print of one of the photos featured in the presentation will be raffled off, with money donated to Umutima Cooperative at Nyamirambo Women’s Center.
Pedrick and three others embarked on a journey to Rwanda, halfway across the world, at the invitation of a friend with family on assignment in Rwanda. Pedrick was eager to not only capture the beautiful landscapes and safari vistas, but to also experience local culture.
This included fabric shopping in the city of Kigali to buy material for a bespoke gown, taking cooking lessons at a women’s cooperative bakery and many walks along colorful streets.
Rwanda is located in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills, with stunning scenery, extraordinary biodiversity and incredible wildlife living among volcanoes, montane rainforest and sweeping plains.
The first half of Laura Pedrick’s career was devoted to photojournalism, working after college on a small evening newspaper in upstate New York, later moving to Trenton where the New York Times assigned her to cover the statehouse (1990-2013), as well as a wide range of hard news and features for every section of the paper, including documenting political campaigns on the local and national level.
For the past 10 years Pedrick has focused on visual storytelling for private schools, small businesses and entrepreneurs needing image branding, including politicians running for office. Still compelled to keep her connection to print journalism, she is a frequent contributor to the Bucks County Herald’s magazines Prime Time and River Towns. Her studio in Lambertville is dedicated to business portraiture.
Her travel itch is satisfied as a contributing photographer and writer for destinations featured on the popular travel blog, Johnny Jet.
Pedrick has a fine arts degree from New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts. Her home is Titusville, N.J.
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