American, b. 1965
Bidaut was born in Texas in 1965. As a youth she backpacked in Europe with an older sister. Bidaut photographed the markets and the animaleries (pet stores) of Europe. This 1982 trip led to many returns, with Bidaut seeing Greece, Holland, Italy, France and North Africa. In the mid-1980's Bidaut studied art and photography at Texas Christian University on a scholarship. In 1996 at a Connecticut fleamarket, Bidaut met a man selling butterflies, and she bought her first insect. The vender was a passionate entomologist who had collected specimens since childhood. She visited his home and was stunned by his collections. She began collecting with him as her principal source.
As Bidaut photographed her insects, she searched for the photographic medium that would best express her intentions. She determined modern chemistries wouldn't do. Finally she chose the tintype.
Fixing the specimens in a 'quiet space' seemed to require older, more painstaking techniques. She choose ferrotype (also called tintype) in which 'The Dark - felt beautiful' for the dusky shadings of the process impart to everything captured an aura of perpetual twilight.