Richard Woldendorp: abstract earth

For the last 50 years, Richard Woldendorp has been depicting the Australian landscape from a unique perspective – the sky. From his aerial vantage point he has photographed, with great skill and precision, shifting tides, moving sands, the reflective waterways, roads, farmed regions, forests and more.

Abstract Earth: The Photography of Richard Woldendorp showcases the incredible skill of this early pioneer of aerial photography, as it is almost impossible to distinguish whether his untouched photographic works are photographs or indeed painted works of art.

Woldendorp’s first aerial landscapes date from the 1960s, but it was a genre that he rapidly made his own. Nowadays, as a veteran of many flights and with seventeen books and numerous exhibitions behind him, the Dutch-born Woldendorp is acknowledged as a giant of Australian photography.

Abstract Earth is not just landscape; it’s the landscape as seen by Woldendorp, who trained as a painter and still views the world through a painter’s eye. Although each picture in the exhibition is a precise record of a landscape seen from the air, these scenes have the power and presence of large abstract paintings. Many works bear a striking resemblance to the canvases of Abstract Expressionists and Colour-Field painters, and to the works of Aboriginal artists. They may look like works imagination, but they are indeed astonishing records of concrete reality. of the

Seen together, Woldendorp’s powerful images reveal the incredible beauty and diversity of this country. As such, he has created a unique and important body of work that challenges how we experience and understand our place within the Australian landscape. By opening up this exchange, his photographs also provide space for a meditation on the critical relationship between the human and natural worlds as we shape ourselves in dynamic concert.

Richard Woldendorp
abstract earth