ROBERTO VALENZUELA

He’s coming to the UK for The Photography Show and he has a lot to say! Roberto Valenzuela opens up to Keith Wilson about his incredible journey from high-school teacher to acclaimed wedding photographer and best-selling author

- Roberto Valenzuela

THE TIME in LA is 8:30am in the morning, but Roberto Valenzuela has been up since the crack of dawn. “I have two kids,” he explains. “So, at 5am I’m up and running!” Home for Roberto and his family is Beverly Hills, the fabled address of Hollywood movie stars and a far cry from Tucson, Arizona, where he grew up and studied before moving to the Pacific coast 17 years ago.

“Tucson is more like a place where people go to retire,” he says. “It’s a college town and there’s a retirement community, so if you’re not in college and you’re not retired, you’re in this weird between space that Tucson doesn’t really fit.” That said, his years in Tucson were pivotal in attaining the reputation he enjoys today as one of the world’s most influential photographers. While living in Arizona’s second-largest city, Roberto changed careers from high-school teacher to wedding photographer. In those early days, he shot about 70 weddings a year. “Now, it’s probably more like three!” The reason for the change, he says, was simply to devote his weekends to his two boys, who are now aged five and two. “If I spend my weekends doing weddings, I’m not going to have any time with my kids while they’re little,” he reasons. Nonetheless, Roberto is quick to counter any suggestion that he won’t be returning to wedding photography big-time at some point in the future…

Only three weddings a year now, aren’t you missing it?