My name is Jean-François Brideau ( breed-o)
I’m a photographer, enjoying everthing photography related I appreciate the people I meet, the places I go to, the hours I spend and the spontaneity of each shoot.
I appreciate the raw reality of everyday life, the fleeting beauty of those in-between moments, and I do my best to take every photo with that in mind. I want my viewers to identify with my photographs through recognition and familiarity with the situations, emotions and energy therein so much that they wonder if they are looking at a photo of someone that they know.
In Quebec since 2000, originally from Tracadie-Sheila in NB, where from a young age I was exposed to photography through my father who had a darkroom. At the time, he was an art student at UdeM and was doing photography. I remember hiding in the closet with his camera to play with the buttons. The sounds coming out of this machine amazed me. Looking in the small screen and playing with the dial that made the view blurry or normal could hypnotize me and send me wandering in the clouds for long periods of time. So I grew up with this curiosity for photography, images in books, National Geographics, for which I dreamed of one day being a photographer and traveling all over the world to document my discoveries in image and text. In the early 90s, the world of fashion, design and street photography interested me to the point that I practiced editing models of photos from fashion magazines and street scenes, in pencil on paper.
My life didn’t quite turn towards being a photographer right away, I became a musician, then I had several jobs as ostheopath, café owner, chef… to name a few. I spent most of my early 20s travelling the world, using disposable cameras and no instrument to play with. After having been refused in College in Photography in the mid-90’s for being colorblind, I tried again in the early 2000’s in a different province and didn’t mention that part, and it worked I got in to photography and media arts – Of course the teacher noticed, he kept telling to add more reds to my photos. I finished College in 2007 and have been devoting my time towards this passion. In 2009 my work was in web design for an agency as the Web director to later go off on my seperate venture, it’s service that I still offer to this day, but I was getting closer and closer to this passion that dated back to my childhood. Finally in 2012, I started to get into photography full blown and to this day.
Over the years, I have accumulated many training courses in photography with big names in the field such as Greg Williams and Mark Hemmings, remarkable mentors with whom I acquired the know-how of the art of photography. An art that I now share with you with all the passion I feel.