Photography

Murray Fredericks: The Salt Lake

Anne Newman

Mar 24, 2024 • 3 min read

Earlier this year I was fortunate in being able to attend an exhibition The Salt Lake held at the Museum of Australian Photography which is very near my home in Melbourne. The Salt Lake is a major survey exhibition of the work of iconic Australian landscape photographer Murray Fredericks and brings together Fredericks's previous photographic projects of: Salt, Array, Vanity and his most recent series, Blaze.

Over the last 20 years, Murray Fredericks has estabished himself as one of the leading international artists challenging the traditions of landscape photography.

In 2003 Murry Fredericks first visited Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, one of the world's largest salt lakes, located in the deserts of Central Australia. Driven by the boundless potential of abstract space, Fredericks has returned 31 times over the past two decades, exploring perceptual states of being through photographs. His chapters, or 'cycles' as he calls them, have explored interventions with mirrors, and more recently fire, capturing infinity and the void through the lens of contemplative minimalism. Defined by lights, colour and space, Fredericks's photographs are a phenomenological response to the experience of existing in an ostensibly empty place without scale for extended periods of time. ¹

**Murray Fredericks** born Australia 1970 **Salt 300 2005** from the series *Salt,* pigment ink-jet print, Collection of the artist (Image photo take by Anne Newman at the Museum of Australian Photography)

THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING OUT THERE IN THE CENTRE FOR LONG PERIODS HAS A VERY PROFOUND EFFECT ON YOUR MENTAL STATE. IT'S THAT EFFECT, THE QUALITY OF THE EMOTIONAL AND METAPHYSICAL EXPERIENCE THAT I HOPE THESE IMAGES CONVEY. Murray Fredericks²

**Murray Fredericks** born Australia 1970 Salt 110 2006 from the series *Salt,* pigment ink-jet print, Collection of the artist (Image photo take by Anne Newman at the Museum of Australian Photography)

Today I am only going to show a few of my photographs taken at the exhibition as I cannot do justice to these remarkable images created by Murray Fredericks.

Please follow the bookmark link at the end of the post to Murray Fredericks site where you can explore and see his remarkable photography of the landscape of inland Australia.

**Murray Fredericks** born Australia 1970 Salt 108 2006 from the series *Salt,* pigment ink-jet print, Collection of the artist (Image photo take by Anne Newman at the Museum of Australian Photography)

**Murray Fredericks** born Australia 1970 304 2009 from the series *Salt,* pigment ink-jet print, Collection of the artist (Image photo take by Anne Newman at the Museum of Australian Photography)

**Murray Fredericks** born Australia 1970 119 2007 from the series *Salt,* pigment ink-jet print, Collection of the artist (Image photo take by Anne Newman at the Museum of Australian Photography)

Please take the time to check out the website for Murray Fredericks - Fine Art Photography so that you can see and appreciate the true beauty of these images.

Murray Fredericks is an international award-winning artist and film maker. His projects have resulted in large-scale minimalistic photographs and taken him through the terrains of Greenland, Lake Eyre and the Himalayas. His debut documentary Salt (2009) was highly acclaimed and travelled worldwide. Frederick's specialist knowledge of landscape has led to his being highly regarded as a cinematographer and photographer, working on BBC/David Attenborough productions, The Dark Emu Story (2023), The Drover's Wife (2021) and the television series Mystery Road (2018). ¹

^Credits
^{1. Explanation by Curator Angela Connor, MAPh Senior Curator as provided on the exhibition labels}
^{2. Explanation by Murray Fredericks as provided on the exhibition labels at the MAPh}
^{3. Museum of Australian Photography (maph.org.au) - exhibition labels.}

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