Bio

Tom Freda

• Been a photo geek since I got a folding Kodak Brownie from my grandmother at age 8. (Compiled a great portfolio of family members on the toilet.)

• First published in my local home-town paper at age 14. (I can get paid doing this?)

• 5 years of photographic training at Sheridan Institute and Ryerson University. (Lived on macaroni & cheese to pay for it.)

• 10 years working freelance at many of Toronto's foremost commercial studios. (I'll never look at women's underwear and kitchen utensils the same again.)

• 30 years shooting stock photography in every corner of Canada and the Caribbean. Now represented worldwide by various agents. (Love those monthly cheques.)

• Most work these days appears in outdoor and travel magazines, calendars, books, greeting cards, brochures, annual reports and other advertising. (But still get requests to work for just a photo credit.)

• Just started exhibiting fine art photography again in 2011. (Finally found my long lost beret.)

• Shoot mostly digital, but can't let go of film. (Remember film? Came in a yellow box ...?)

• Scanning and Photoshop wizard. (OK, maybe that's bragging - but it's true.)

Outside of photography

• 10 years doing commercial and non-profit press releases and technical writing. (And still no Pulitzer.)

• A classic political junkie, turned a personal passion for democratic reform in Canada into a side career. Now a non-partisan media spokesperson for grass-roots citizens' action. (The best job I ever did for free.)

• Live in Toronto with my wonderful wife, son and Labrador retriever. (Well, cleaning up the dog poop isn't so wonderful.)