Bourdeau was born in
Kingston, Ontario, in 1931. At first, his chosen subject was landscape which he photographed in black-and-white. His choice of scenes in Canada, Ireland and elsewhere were presented in luminous detail but gave the viewer not the surface but the spirit of the natural world. His work developed over time to a more measured, meditative view and he introduced architecture into his subject matter, preferably architecture which spoke to an historical time. Bourdeau says: "I hold the conviction that emotional forces generated by a place can be made visible." The
Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography calls his work remarkable for its rigorous consistency The
Calgary Herald, in 1989, said of a show of his work at the
Glenbow Museum, that his work is "beautiful, meditative, alive with tonal richness and compressed details, and still in atmosphere, all in ways that reward long looking". In 1966, he had his first exhibition in Canada at the
National Film Board Still Photography Division and in 1969, the
National Gallery of Canada acquired his work for the first time. Bourdeau taught photography at the University of Ottawa from 1980 to 1994. == Awards and honours ==