Fred was born in 1972. Since his childhood he has been in contact with the sea, spending
several months a year on the family’s sailboat.

At the age of 10, he discovered free diving. After some years of practice, he became a Padi and Cmas scuba diving instructor and started to teach free diving in 1991.

He set his 1st world record in 1995 and then decided to dedicate his life to free diving. He achieved three more world records between 1997 and 2000. In 1999, Frederic passed the100m’s mythical barrier on one breath of air. He was the 8th person to do so. In 2002, he started underwater photography to be able to show the beauty of free diving and the underwater world.

Fred comes from an artistic background. His grand grand father was a pioneer of photography in the 1890’ and art collector, his grand father was a painter and his father a commercial and fashion photographer during the 60’. His work shows these various influences. All his pictures and images are taken in freediving action and using only available light in order to minimise the impact on the ecosystem.

 

To take his pictures Fred uses a simple formula: the water, available light, a camera and one breath of air. A freediver is able to capture unique moments thanks to his simple equipment and ease of movement. Fred has been taking pictures down to 60m on single breath of air on  remote locations where scuba divers can’t access. What makes Fred’s photography different from any other underwater photography is his rather zen approach to this media. Four important rules define his work and he follows them anytime he jumps in the water with his camera:

The commitment:

1. All the images are taken during freediving on one single breath of air. No breathing aids are ever used.
2. All the images are taken in available light in order to give the closest possible testimony of the scene
3. The images might be post processed in image’s enhancement software but nothing is added or removed from the images by any process. The only allowance, is re-framing to make it closer to Fred’s vision of the scene.
4. Fred is a passive observer who wants to bring to a wide audience the beauties of the underwater world in it’s purest aspects. For that reason, he commits himself to disturb it as little as possible and to use environmental friendly ways and techniques to produce his images whenever possible.

Fred’s work is published in:

Apnea, Chocs, Daily Mail, Diver, Diver Japan, Dyking, L’Equipe Magazine, ESPN The Magazine, Focus, Geo, Hawaii Skin Diver, Melange, Men’s Health, National Geographic, New Look, Océans, Ocean Geographic, Outside, Paris Match, Plongeurs International, Thalassa, The Telegraph, the Times amongst others.

Corporate:

IWC Shaffausen, Hamilton Watches, Red Bull, Tahiti Tourisme

Beside uw imaging, Fred is helping scientists for tasks such as shark tagging for telemetry studies. So far Fred tagged successfully scalloped hammerhead shark, galapagos shark, lemon shark, great hammerhead shark and great white shark. Together with freediver William Winram, he founded Ocean Encounters, a partnership dedicated to the marine awareness activities and helping scientists on the field.

Author of:
[apnea], Catapac, 2011, the first coffee table book about freediving.
L’Apnée, Plaisir et ¨Performance, Vagnon, 2011