Portraits: Alejandro Turrent

Alejandro Turrent may be as close to the face of Mexican tobacco as the cigar industry has, and the fact that he’s not more well known is a shame given how much his family has contributed and what he is currently doing to bring Mexican cigars back to prominence. His family brought you the Te-Amo brand, and now he is working on bring his family’s name to a humidor near you via the Casa Turrent lines, while also providing much of the Mexican San Andrés leaf found on cigars from other brands.

In addition to being the head of a significant tobacco and cigar operation, he also owns several retail stores in Mexico City, heads up the sales and marketing of the company, and has developed a line of Casa Turrent tequila. But beyond all of that, his most important role is father, preparing what could well be the sixth generation of Turrents in the tobacco business.

This portrait was taken with a Canon 5D MkIII and a 24-70 f/2.8 lens set to 30mm at f/4 and 1/50 of a second. The ISO was set at 100, and there are two sources of light: open shade from the buildings and a flash triggered by Pocket Wizards to Turrent’s left held by Charlie Minato. The photograph was converted from RAW in Photoshop CC 2014 and converted into black and white using custom actions.

Bio by Patrick Lagreid. Portrait and technical details by Brooks Whittington.