MURRAY FREDERICKS - Photographer

MURRAY FREDERICKS – Photographer

Murray Fredericks is the photographer who has travelled into Australia’s heartland year after year for the isolation and for the love of photographing Lake Eyre. His images culminated in the making of a documentary film called ‘Salt’.

Fredericks method of transport when he travels is a three-wheeler-bike with all his photographic and tent equipment attached. He ventures alone into the emptiness of this desolate area.

His photographs show the vastness of Lake Eyre, its flatness and very often he photographs his camp set-up alone in the desert. They are very simple photographs – often sky, a straight horizon and a white or light coloured foreground. They have a magic about them.

The film ‘Salt’ captures the remoteness. It has interwoven Frederick’s still photographs with film clips. It shows how he might set up a photograph – for instance he might walk half a km to where he wants to leave his gear in thick mud, then he retraces those same steps to get back to the camera but leave no footsteps between the set up and the camera. The still photo would be of a long trail coming from behind the stuck-in-the-mud bike and also the bike stuck, but no footprints to where the photo is shot. Very exhausting. I wonder whether he ever questions what happens if he cant get his bike out again?

His photographic results are amazing