Jeff Carter

• Name — Jeff Carter • Born — 5 August 1928 • Birthplace — Melbourne • Died — 25 October 2010 • Place of death — Foxground, New South Wales, Australia • Field — Photojournalism • Training — self-taught • Works — Tobacco Road, Ovens Valley, 1955–1956 • Spouse — 1947 Frances Oscar, 1952 Mary Thompson-Read-Young

Carter was born to Percy and Doris Carter in August 1928 in Melbourne. Jeff's parents were successful merchants and Jeff attended Melbourne Boys High School. By the time he matriculated in 1946, his three major passions were clear – photography, writing and travel. He began taking photographs while still at high school. His first photos were taken with a Kodak Box Brownie, given to him as a 13th birthday present.

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 The Australian Women's Weekly. He was later also commissioned by National Geographic. The curator of the 2011 retrospective of Carter's work, Sandra Byron, said his photographs were "deceptively simple because they were extremely well crafted, wonderful images", and that he was an important figure in Australian documentary photography. From 1949–54, Carter was editor of Outdoors and Fishing magazine; he then resigned to travel in rural and outback Australia as a freelance photo-journalist. He wrote and illustrated 17 books based on his experiences. His most widely held book outside Australia is People of the Inland. [Adelaide]: Rigby, 1966. OCLC 901968. Carter's other books include: The Life and Land of Central Australia (1967); Outback in Focus (1968); Stout Hearts and Leathery Hands (1968); Surf Beaches of Australia's East Coast (1968); Four-Wheel Drive Swagman (1969); Wild Country (1974); Jeff Carter's Great Book Of The Australian Outdoors (1976); All Things Wild (1977); and Jeff Carter's Guided Tours Of The Outback (1979). At the time of his death in 2010 he was in the final stages of compiling a book of photographic works produced in collaboration with his granddaughter. Carter also produced a three-volume series of semi-autobiographical novels, Snowmaidens, which remained unpublished at the time of his death. Carter is quoted as saying that he was influenced by writers such as Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck and Edgar Snow.

From 1972–74, Jeff Carter directed and filmed the television series Wild Country for the Seven Network. The series was edited by Roger Whittaker and Jeff's daughter Karen, and was screened internationally, including at the annual television festival MIP in Cannes, France. An episode won awards for Best Documentary, Best Director and Best Editing at the 1974 Australian Film Institute Awards, and another episode won several awards at the annual television festival MIP in Cannes, France. From 1981–85, he was head teacher of photography at the Wollongong campus of the National Art School.

As a photographer, Carter concentrated on the unglamorous and unprivileged aspects of Australia, with a focus on the working lives and conditions of ordinary Australians. During his early travels, his experiences as an itinerant bush worker, fruit picker, side show "urger" for a travelling boxing troupe, drover, road worker, and mill hand, brought him in contact with the people who would be the subjects of his photographs. These early years of his career filled him with admiration for those making their livings in some of the toughest environments in Australia. Throughout his career, Carter has produced series that show the progression of events over time. Concentrating on rituals and process, they comprise evocative images.

In 1947, at the age of 19, Jeff Carter married Frances Oscar, a motorcycle rider in a circus sideshow and had two children, daughter, Karen Siobhan Carter, and son Thor. In 1952 he began a de facto relationship with Mary Thompson-Read-Young (known as 'Mare'). They settled in 1962 on a 45-hectare farm at Foxground near the south coast town of Berry, NSW and turned it into a wildlife sanctuary. They had two boys, Goth and Vandal.

Jeff Carter's obituary, written by Robert McFarlane, appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald on 6 November 2010.

• Focus Oz, 1991–2 – Berry NSW • Untitled, 1992 – Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne • Saturday Arvo, 1993 – Stills Gallery, Sydney • Untitled, 1994 – Christine Abrahams Gallery • Concerned Viewer, 1995 – Photographers Gallery, Sydney • Beach, Bush & Battlers, 1995 – Byron-Mapp Gallery, Sydney • Battlers, 1996 – Christine Abrahams Gallery, 1998 – Byron-Mapp Gallery, 1999 Penrith Regional Gallery, 1999 Brisbane City Art Gallery, 2000 Gippsland Regional Art Gallery, 2002 – Myrtleford, Victoria • Sydney Images, 1996 – Byron-Mapp Gallery • A Hungry Eye, 1999 – Dick Bett Gallery, Hobart • 8 Seconds High!, 1999 – Christine Abrahams Gallery, 2003 – Museum of the Riverina, Wagga, 2003 – Shear Outback, Hay, NSW, • Selected Images, 1999 – Paris Photo Show • The Way We Were, 2000 – Byron-Mapp Gallery • Combined Artists, 2000 – Byron-Mapp Gallery • Selected Images, 2000 – Paris Photo Show • Charles Kerry/Jeff Carter, 2001 – Mosman Art Gallery • Images 1950–2000, 2001 – Christine Abrahams Gallery • Federation (Contrib. Artist), 2001 – National Gallery of Australia • Images 1950–2000, 2001 – Byron-Mapp Gallery • Big River Show (Contrib. Artist), 2002 – Wagga Regional Art Gallery • Retrospective, 2003 – Monash Gallery of Art, Victoria • Images 1950–2001 – National Trust Parliament Place Gallery, Melbourne • Icon Images, 2003 – Christine Abrahams Gallery • Vintage Images, 2006 – Sandra Byron Gallery, Sydney • Retrospective Images, 2006 – Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne • 'La Nieta', 2006 – The Australian Photographers Gallery, Sydney • Queen Victoria Market Series: 1956, 2008 Queen Victoria Market • Beach, Bush + Battlers: Photographs by Jeff Carter 2011 – State Library of NSW from 4 January – 20 February

Jeff Carter is recorded as photographer, journalist, writer and photojournalist. Established in Library of Congress under n50033942. Established in FAST under 11436.