Freeman Wilford Patterson, CM (b. September 25, 1937) is a Canadian nature photographer and writer born at Long Reach, New Brunswick.[1]
He earned a B.A., from Acadia University and was granted a fellowship to study at Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University. After completing three years there, he taught for three more years in Edmonton before finally deciding to pursue photography full time.[2]
Patterson has since authored several books on photographic techniques and theory, including Photography for the Joy of It (1977), Photography and the Art of Seeing (1979) and Photography of Natural Things (1982). These books were issued in revised formats in 2006.
Patterson has also authored books centred on his nature photography, such as Namaqualand: Garden of the Gods (1984), Portraits of Earth (1987), In a Canadian Garden (1989), The Last Wilderness: Images of the Canadian Wild (1990) and One Planet, One Man (1994). In 2001, Patterson and co-author Andre Gallant, produced Photo Impressionism and The Subjective Image.
Together with photographer and friend Colla Swart, he has hosted many photographic workshops in Kamieskroon, Northern Cape, South Africa.
In the 1980s he contracted Hepatitis B, which gradually led to an extremely debilitated condition. In 2000 he received a liver transplant which failed. A second organ was located five days later, and he eventually recovered fully.[2]
In 1985, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.