Fred Ferand, El Gato Negro, 42, Bordeaux, France

1- Who are you?
I’m Fred, 42 year’s old, I live in Bordeaux in france south west and I’m a  phys. ed. teacher

2- Where are you right now?
nursing a pretty heavy headache

3- What’s your current camera set up?
body: 1D mkIII,
lenses: peleng fisheye 8mm, canon 50mm 1.8, canon 70-200mm 2.8, canon 17-35mm 2.8
I have radio slave, thanx to Alex Pires, an off shoe cord and 2 canon flashes (one is a gift from D. Manaud, thanx to him too)

4- What’s your current skateboard set up? You bet ! my all time favorite board is the Skaterbuilt VRSII, wobbly indy’s  169, skaterbuilt poolsideflavors wheels 60mm, 99 duro, white khiro bushings (really mellow), and some good old rails just to get the old style look. check out skaterbuilt on the net, great company !

5- What inspires you?
In photography: I’m an avid reader, I love art (my mama is a great painter ) and also I constantly browse the net searching for nice images & inspiration, for example I find site like The Big Picture very interesting, image and text wise.
In life, family matters the most.

6- Who inspires you?

really I’m like a sponge, I love to share and meet other people. I don’t consider myself a photographer, it’s just a tool I use to freeze a moment in life, it could have been painting but I suck at it… then getting to know some real photographers and learning tips from them has been a great help.
if I have to name a few photogs:
Mofo’s pictures in the old thrasher defined what a skateboarding pic should be for me.
Glen E Friedman, of course, behind the lense and also for his feeling to discover what’s going to be great !
recently I discovered the work of Bryan Lathrop from Philly, we have a lot in common, Alexey Lapin from moscow russia, guys I learned a lot from are Jeff “master” Barrusseau, David Manaud, Tjeerd Derkink, Chrissie Steigt.
I love to watch work from Ryan Brenizer and wedding photographs, theblogisfound.com and French extraordinaire Valentin Flauraud
there’s so many … of course I browse skateinfusion daily … ;)

7- What was the last music track you listened to?
tough one, I ALWAYS listen to music, so this is the last tunes played on my player.
The Aquabats – awesome forces
Maryslim – A perfect mess

8- What was the last cool stuff you have seen on the web ?
not cool at all, but very interesting
www.zoriah.net/blog

9- Where can we see your work?
on the net : flickr
expositions:
Skate Expo, Talence, France
SKate, Gothenburg, Sweden
Skate ! Perigueux
I had pictures printed for freestyler mag, thrasher mag, sk8.net le mag, old man army zine.

10- Anything you would like to add?
SHUT UP AND SKATE

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All pictures copyright Fred Ferand / El Gato Negro.