At this month event, we will be discussing Photography Businesses with the top 3 photographers in Cap-Haitien; Conrad Schutt, Samuel Dameus, and Maxim Laroche. These young Haitians are disrupting the photography business in Haiti, and use their talents to promote Haiti as a tourist destination and attract new investment in the city. What are the challenges? What is the impact of their work? what are their future plans? come to find out.
CONRAD is From Cap-Haitian, Haiti. He attended Florida International University where he studied Hospitality Management in hopes of bringing back knowledge in expertise in the field to attempt to show people on a larger scale what Haiti has to offer. Currently he his Part of the Royal Caribbean Cruises team in Labadee, Haiti, which is the biggest tourism operation in the country. Over the past two years, his passion and fascination for Photography grew by leaps and bounds. A little over a year ago, he founded Malfini Photography, A Media and PR company in Cap-Haitian. It is not just a business, It is a passion "Throughout the years, it was always hard to combat the negative looks and reactions that one would get when saying (I’m from Haiti.) All you have to do is to type Haiti in google and wait for the thousands of articles of everything that is wrong with the country. Although I do not minimize or ignore the fact that we do have problems and issues, I strongly believe that these problems do not define or give the full picture of this amazing nation. Conrad Schut said
Maxim Laroche Founder of HaitiUncut passionate about Photography and Haiti, Maxim is using his passion to promote Haiti as a tourists destination through his lens. He has launched different successful campaigns to highlight the potentials of Cap-Haitien and the rest of Haiti.
Dameus is the former Communications Director for the Ministry of Tourism of Haiti and current Marketing Director of Sunrise Airways. Earlier in his career, as a Communication Officer for IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent), executed unprecedented work during his 4 years with the establishment. He was a key influencer in the development of a text message system named -Tera- which was a crucial method of communicating with the population following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. That system was the pioneer of its category of outsource/outreach tool that has been fully operational in Haiti. Over the years, he continuously uses technology to effectively transmit his vision and ideas. His interest of using technology to communicate effectively initiated his involvement in perfecting his knowledge about the latest and most practical forms of communications in the forever evolving world of technology.
In addition, Dameus is the Founder of the international project Faces Of Haiti Photo Expo events. At the launch of the said project, a photo book was also released, baring the same name. Both the events and the book reflect the actual reality throughout Haiti while magnifying the different aspects of the country whether unknown or misunderstood by the rest of the world. As a result, Dameus is exceptionally proud to showcase the beauty of Haiti through his photography in Miami, Orlando, Havana, Beijing, Geneva, New York, Washington D.C., London, Paris, Montreal through his first world tour with Faces Of Haiti. His home country the current state of the people throughout Haiti. Today, Faces Of Haiti Photo Expo and Photography Book series of events with international acknowledgement. Dameus takes great pride in showcasing his photography exposing the beauty of Haiti. In his years of existence and in his professional career of simply 10 years, Dameus has proven to be a beacon of hope and influence to other young people on his path and a very active key member of his community.
Lastly, Dameus is a sought after speaker who has consistently partake in events and movement which support progress in and for Haiti through tourism and technology: Haiti Tech Summit 17, Haitian American Summit 17, Haiti Cybercon 17. He was recently bestowed an Award by Haiti Numerique 2030 for his accomplishment and the positive impact of Faces Of Haiti Photo Expo. In spring 2017, Dameus was selected by the U.S. Embassy in Haiti to participate in the prestigious leadership program IVLP to expand his resources on Communication, Tourism and Economic Development.
