Jeff Carter (photographer)

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Jeff Carter (b. 1928) is an Australian photographer.

Carter was born in August 1928 in Victoria and attended Melbourne Boys’ School. He began taking photographs whilst still at high school.

In 1946, Carter set off to travel around Australia with his camera and typewriter and made a living selling his stories and photographs to a wide range of Australian and international newspapers and magazines including Paris Match, People, Pix, Walkabout and Australian Women's Weekly. He was later also commissioned by National Geographic.

Carter is drawn to the unglamorous unprivileged aspects of Australian experience and has focused on the working lives and conditions of ordinary Australians. During his travels he worked as an itinerant bush worker, fruit picker, side show ‘urger’ for a travelling boxing troupe, drover and road worker getting to know the people who would be the subjects of his photographs for the next fifty years or more. The early years of his career filled him with admiration for the people making their livings in some of the toughest environments in Australia.

The National Library of Australia's ongoing interest in Carter's work has seen the acquisition of over 450 photographs many of which have been digitised.

Throughout his career, Carter has favoured the production of series that enable him to explore the unfolding of events over time and to concentrate on rituals and process. His collections comprise of evocative images, some now accorded iconic status, all rich in humanity, thought provoking and nostalgic cameos of life among the poor and unknown. Carter’s approach of living and working with his subjects over a period of time, often coming back year after year, has resulted in an extraordinary record of Australian life.

[edit] References

  • Helen Ennis, Intersections: Photography, History and the National Library of Australia, National Library of Australia, Canberra 2004
  • Helen Ennis, Made in Australia:Contemporary Documentary Photography, NLA News, December 2004 Volume XV Number 3

[edit] External links