Ginette-Adv Research Methods: RICHARD WOLDENDORP

RICHARD WOLDENDORP - Photographer

Richard Woldendorp was born in Holland but his passion is photographing the Australian outback from above (he migrated to Australia in 1951). He chooses to photograph the abstract patterns within the northern and central Australian landscape that can be seen from above. To me his photographs are wonderful and full of feeling.

His work can be seen in the Australian National Gallery and the Art Galleries of NSW and WA. He was even made a State Living Treasure in WA for his contribution to the arts. Pretty good for a photographer. I couldn’t find out what photographic equipment he uses, but there is a photo of him in the back of his book ‘Abstract Earth’ and he is holding a Hasselblad. He is the same vintage as John Olsen and Fred Williams – born in 1927

I love the patterns made in nature whether a butterfly’s wing, a flower or the pictures that Richard Wolderdorp sees from the sky – landscape patterns. Sometimes he photographs those patterns that man has made on the soil – such as ploughed paddocks in rows. Sometimes it is of bathers on a beach – similar to those that Fred Williams painted!

I reckon that my Lake Eyre photos are more like his than any of the other I have looked at. His are mainly of Northern Queensland; mine of Lake eyre District (including Lake Frome). They could be scientific photographs in terms of what the weather has done to the geology of Australia's land in its centre. They are so abstract that you can't tell where they are located. There are no well known mountains around as it is just an aerial view from above.