Dan Mathieu: Photographer
La Vie Skateboards is honoured to recognize Dan Mathieu; a well-established and highly recognized Canadian photographer. If you've opened a skateboard magazine within the last 25 years, chances are you have seen or know of Dan's photography. Dan has contributed to every major magazine throughout Canada, USA, and Europe. He also had his own publication called "Exposé magazine" that showcased the Québec, Canada skateboard scene. He's traveled the world photographing almost every major skater in the industry. He's shaped Canadian skateboarding as we know it, and provided opportunities for hundreds of people to pursue their own dreams. A true Canadian icon.
About the board:
The bottom graphic is a montage in a film strip format featuring Dan himself. The film strips were developed in a darkroom and on a film format of his choice (other than dropping the copywriter) to provide absolute realism. The top graphic includes a brief summarization of who Dan is and what he has accomplished. Hopefully educating people who don't know who the man behind the scenes is as well as giving some insight to the people who do know of Dan and his work. The objective behind this board is to honour him, spread the knowledge of who he is, and finally to provide Dan with a much deserved skateboard of his own. We would like to thank him for all he has contributed and a lifetime of devotion to skateboarding.
Nous sommes vraiment reconnaissants ...Thank you Dan!
A Q&A with Dan Mathieu:
- how long have you been involved in skateboarding?
Dan - When I was around 10, these 3 brothers moved on my street. The middle kid was around my age and we started hanging out. Their dad was in the army and they had moved around a lot and somewhere along the way, they had acquire a red plastic skateboard. That summer we skated that board almost every day, just pulling each other with a bmx bike or I remember drawing lines on the street and trying to manual the distance. Then I got into freestyle BMX and was hanging out with a crew of older guys, these guys were real good and had a 8 foot quarter pipe. That was a lot of fun. Eventually they all quit and I was the last BMXer in town. One evening I was doing riding my bike at this schoolyard and 3-4 guys showed up with skateboards and we got to talking. They wanted to try my bike and I tried their skateboards. Within a half hour I was able to ollie a parking block. Not long after that I went to Sk8 Dept. in Longueuil and bought my first board. I was 16 at the time. Oh and funny story, my first board was a Schmitt Stix Bryce Kanights. I had no idea who Bryce was, I only got that board for the graphic. But after his pro career, Bryce became one of the most legendary skate photographer and from 2014 to 2018, I shot a bunch of the Park Series events for Vans Skate and Bryce was on that tour as well. It was pretty cool to get to shoot photos next to him.
- were you a sponsored skater at any point?
Dan - I had a few skate shop sponsors and through one of the shop I got free Vans shoes for a couple summers. But I was never at the same level as other dudes. I just liked to go fast and jump down big gaps. Eric Blais from Spin skatepark was actually my first sponsor. He ran a skate shop called Triple X at the time.
- how long have you been shooting photos for?
Dan - I started shooting photos in the early 90s. I wanna say I was around 17 when I started to borrow my dad’s camera to shoot photos of my friends on the weekends. At the time cameras were fairly rare. My dad had one for his work and thinking about it now, it’s pretty crazy he let me borrow it to shoot skateboarding. A few years later, I met Max Dufour and we became good friends, skated a bunch together and eventually Max became real good at vert skating and he got sponsored by Wheelie Company and he needed a photo for an ad. I shot the photo, the ad ran in Slap and Concrete Powder. Concrete Powder was a Canadian mag and the editor somehow found my phone number, called me and asked if I’d be down to send them photos.
- what was Exposé Magazine and your role there?
Dan - So at the time there was a bunch of Canadian mags but we always felt like the Quebec scene was under represented. So in 2003 I started Exposé mag. We published 3 issues a year and we made it to issue 42 before I called it quit. I think we did a decent job at exposing the Quebec scene and I think we were the first mag to dedicate a couple pages to women skateboarding in almost every issue. The first couple years the mag was available at skate shops in Quebec, eventually we added more English content to the mag and expanded to all of Canada and for the last few years, we were distributed in France and parts of Europe.
- where have you shot photos, travels?
Dan - Oh man its actually surreal all the places my camera and skateboard have taken me. I’ve had the chance to go across Canada and the US multiple times, I went all over Europe, Asia, North and South Africa. I’ve probably been to California more times then I’ve been to Laval. Going to the Sahara desert was definitely a highlight. I love the desert. Death Valley is awesome. So is Joshua Tree National Park.
- were there any major struggles, injuries, part time jobs, etc. that you feel like mentioning that you had to do or deal with in order to maintain your passion of shooting photography all these years?
Dan - I mean, it’s always been a struggle. Still is. Being a photographer is not easy but its what I love and I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to combine 2 of my passions and make it my career. I’ve had a few side jobs along the way. I did snow removal for a few winters. Worked at a call center before that and these days I help out a friend who owns a fermented food business whenever they need the extra hands. I’m also a paid on call firefighter. Decided to do the training during covid, I’ve been going on calls for almost 2 years now and I love it.
As far as injuries, I’m currently dealing with a hip / sciatic nerve injury that I have no doubt was caused by 25+ years of pushing on a skateboard with a heavy backpack. I started doing yoga about 8 years ago because my back is pretty much fucked. But I wouldn’t change anything. Except maybe if I could do it all over, I’d start practicing yoga earlier haha.
