Francois Trezin was born in 1982 in the South of France in Valreas – a region with sunshine and very strong wind, surrounded by lavender, vineyards and mountains. He had a very inspiring childhood, and lived for ten years in Grignan Castle, home of the French writer Mme de Sevigne in the 18th century, where his father was the curator.
For his first trip abroad, at nine years old, his father bought him a camera, and his passion for photography has grown ever since. He set up his first black and white photography laboratory in his bathroom at 17 years old, where he discovered the magic of darkness.
He then went to college in Paris to study graphic design at the Estienne School, trying to connect his passion to the field of typography. He met a teacher there who introduced him to contemporary Japanese culture. After graduating he realized that photography was the only thing that mattered to him and decided to study photography further at art school.
In 2003, for his first trip to Japan, sponsored by a grant from the city of Ivry-sur-Seine, he returned with a pile of material (photos, videos, sounds recordings) that became the foundation for his work during the next year at art school in Nantes. At the same time he started to learn Japanese by himself.
In 2004, he travelled again around Japan, by bicycle this time, stopping off at the biggest cities such as Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka and Sapporo. Back in France, he made a book inspired by his road trip and exhibited photos at the Angle Gallery, in the South of France.
During a further year at Cergy Art School (ENSAPC), he continued working on his experiences collected from Japan. He also assisted the photographer Jean-Christophe Mazur, who was working for various prestigious Paris museums like the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Galerie du Jeu de Paume.
In 2005, after graduation, he left for Japan to assist photographers and learn more about studio photography. He worked for various photographers at PILOT magazine and then met the photographer Baba Kyosuke, with whom he worked for one year.
In 2007 he left Japan and came to Shanghai, and loved it immediately. At first he assisted the photographer Jean-Louis Wolff (including on projects for Nike, Coca-Cola 2008, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and ELLE), and then started working with magazines in the Modern Media Group (Modern Weekly, The Outlook Magazine, Lohas and U+) as a still life photographer. He also shot some advertising catalogues for Chinese fashion brands like Mark Fairwhale and others.
Beside his commercial and editorial work, Francois is an artist. He has exhibited his personal photography at the “366 Intrude project” (Zendai MoMa, Shanghai) and at the TS1 gallery (798, Beijing). His studio is located in the centre of Shanghai, at Weihai Lu 696.
