Works from MURRAY FREDERICKS’s seminal, decades-spanning ‘Salt’ project can be experienced in person this week at Michael Reid Sydney in a special presentation paired with the recent online release of archival photographs that accompanied the announcement of his representation by Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin.
“Working on salt lakes allowed the landscape to be reduced to an almost blank field, and the work moved away from topography toward perception itself,” says Fredericks in an interview published in tandem with his joining the gallery’s stable. “Light, tonality and scale became the primary elements. Landscape was no longer a subject to depict, but a space through which to explore duration, emptiness and the psychological states that emerge through immersion.”
Across a celebrated career spanning close to three decades, Fredericks has honed a singular photographic language shaped by prolonged solitary immersion in remote environments at the far edges of elemental extremes. Through a durational practice grounded in reduction, seriality and sustained attention, Fredericks distils light, horizon and elemental interventions into arresting images that move beyond the landscape as scenery and towards a timeless essence.
‘Salt’ has remained a defining expression of this process and methodology and an enduringly resonant distillation of his singular vision. “It was never conceived as a long-term project,” says the artist. “I initially imagined one or two visits; it grew into 31 visits over 22 years. Eventually I moved into the centre of the lake itself, transporting water and equipment by bike and trailer and camping for up to ten days at a time. That shift changed the work. The immersion became total.”
For Fredericks, the challenges posed by this immersion were subordinate to the creative inquiry. “The vision always came first,” he says. “Each visit extended the framework, testing new conditions within a landscape that, despite its apparent emptiness, proved inexhaustible.”
For enquiries, please email [email protected]@murrayfredericks
#murrayfredericks #salt #michaelreidsydney
“The interventions are intentional disruptions that alter how space is perceived,” says acclaimed Australian contemporary photographer MURRAY FREDERICKS in an artist profile published to coincide with his representation by Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin.
“In ‘Blaze’, fire reorganises the field. The sites were chosen specifically because they were ephemeral landscapes – temporary bodies of water that exist only under particular conditions. Ephemeral waterways and lakes are a defining feature of the Australian inland. The flame operates in the same way: both are transient states that briefly permit a landscape to exist before vanishing.”
To celebrate the announcement of the artist’s representation, we are pleased to present an online exhibition of photographs spanning several key bodies of work, from his seminal, decades-spanning ‘Salt’ project to the more recent series ‘Blaze’. Framed editions of select works from this online release have now arrived at Michael Reid Sydney and can be experienced in person this week.
Across a celebrated career spanning close to three decades, Fredericks has developed a singular photographic language shaped by prolonged solitary immersion in remote environments at the far edges of elemental extremes. “Murray has redefined the visual language of the Australian landscape, distilling vast, remote environments into meditative studies of light, horizon and abstraction,” writes Michael Reid OAM. “His body of work stands among the most significant photographic interpretations of place produced in this country.”
To enquire about the artist’s available work, book a private viewing of his newly arrived framed editions or sign up for first access to his forthcoming projects, please email [email protected]@murrayfredericks
#murrayfredericks #murrayfredericksart #salt #blaze #michaelreidberlin #michaelreidsydney
To celebrate the announcement of our galleries’ representation of acclaimed Australian contemporary photographer MURRAY FREDERICKS, Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin now presents a selection of photographs spanning several of the artist’s essential, career-defining bodies of work.
This newly available online offering can be explored alongside our recently published profile on Fredericks, in which he discusses the creative influences, conceptual inquiries and intrepid forays into elemental extremes that have propelled his singular practice across three decades.
“The decisive shift came when I chose to embrace space itself as the subject of inquiry,” says Fredericks, whose reductionist distillations of light, horizon and elemental interventions in space allow his images to move beyond landscape as scenery and towards a perceptual essence.
“Working on salt lakes allowed the landscape to be reduced to an almost blank field, and the work moved away from topography towards perception itself. Landscape was no longer a subject to depict, but a space through which to explore duration, emptiness and the psychological states that emerge through immersion.”
Photographs selected for the online release now accompanying our Q&A interview encompass key bodies of work from across his career – including ‘Salt’, ‘Hector’, ‘Blaze’ and more. “I look back at ‘Salt’ as the body of work that defined my process and methodology,” he says, discussing the seminal, decades-spanning project that now stands among his most indelible and influential.
“All of the physical and technical challenges were subordinate to the inquiry. The vision always came first. The duration of ‘Salt’ was not strategic; it was the result of returning to unresolved questions. Each visit extended the framework, testing new conditions within a landscape that, despite its apparent emptiness, proved inexhaustible.”
To enquire about these and other works by the artist or sign up for first access to his future projects, please email [email protected]@murrayfredericks
#murrayfredericks #michaelreidberlin #michaelreidsydney
Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin is thrilled to announce our representation of acclaimed Australian contemporary photographer MURRAY FREDERICKS. Across a celebrated career spanning close to three decades, Fredericks has developed a singular photographic language shaped by prolonged solitary immersion in remote environments at the far edges of elemental extremes.
Through a durational practice grounded in reduction, seriality and sustained attention, Fredericks distils light, horizon and elemental interventions into images that move beyond landscape as scenery – where “light, space and duration become the true subject” and the landscape itself is “a medium through which emotional and psychological states are registered.”
“Honoured we are,” says our Chairman and Director, Michael Reid OAM. “Over decades, Murray has redefined the visual language of the Australian landscape, distilling vast, remote environments into meditative studies of light, horizon and abstraction. His body of work stands among the most significant photographic interpretations of place produced in this country. We look forward to working closely with Murray and to presenting forthcoming exhibitions that honour the depth and the discipline of his remarkable practice.”
In the lead-up to our announcement, the Michael Reid team met Fredericks at his Eora/Sydney home and workspace for a wide-ranging conversation exploring the creative influences and conceptual inquiries that have informed his practice. “In open environments, I experienced a kind of psychological freedom that I couldn’t access elsewhere,” he says in the resulting profile, published alongside a selection of photographs drawn from pivotal bodies of work and newly available from Michael Reid Sydney.
Fredericks has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally, including presentations at Paris Photo and AIPAD New York, and within major institutional exhibitions at the NGV and Samstag Museum of Art. His work is held in significant public and private collections, including the NGV and Artbank.
For enquiries, please email [email protected]@murrayfredericks
#murrayfredericks #michaelreidberlin #michaelreidsydney
A very emotional dawn on our home beach at Bondi this morning. The community gathered for a memorial with speeches led by the Jewish community before a few thousand of us paddled out together in memory of those who died, those who helped, and everyone carrying the trauma. Being together lin the water as a community felt like a reclaiming of our beach.
Thanks to author Michael Petry and Thames & Hudson for including my work in Mirror Mirror: The Reflective Surface in Contemporary Art.
As quoted in the book
"Lake Eyre (Kathi Thanda) is a salt lake and extensive salt pan in the central desert of Australia. For my Vanity series of images, I carried a large mirror out to the desolate, haunting and beautiful site and placed it in the water before documenting the almost alien landscape. Other images show cloud formations duplicated or the streaks of stars across the night sky. I mainly took images at dawn or dusk, where the poetic colours and atmosphere of the site seem almost computer generated.
'The mirror can be seen as emblematic of our obsession with ourselves, individually, and collectively… Rather than reflecting our own ‘surface’ image, the mirror is positioned to draw our gaze out and away from ourselves, into the environment, driving towards an emotional engagement with light, colour and space'.”
#MirrorMirror #MichaelPetry #MurrayFredericks #VanitySeries #Kati-Thanda #LakeEyre #SaltLake #ContemporaryPhotography #AustralianArt #ReflectiveArt #ContemporaryArt #PhotographicArt #LightAndSpace
Many Thanks to @arconegallery for a successful Sydney Contemporary. A selelction of original Salt Series works are currently on exhibition in Melbourne as part of LEGACY 2025, now showing at ARC ONE Gallery until 4 October.
The show celebrates key works by leading contemporary Australian artists. ARC ONE Gallery 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
OPENING TODAY
LEGACY 2025: KEYWORKS is now open at ARC ONE Gallery, Flinders Lane, Melbourne. Thrilled to be showing with Lyndell Brown and Charles Green, Janet Lawrence, Honey Long & Prue Stent, Jacky Redgate, Julie Rrap, Imants Tillers and John Young.
Image Salt 108 120cm x 150cm Digital Pigment Print.
Salt 8 — 120cm x 150cm
Digital Pigment Print, Edition AP
Showing with @arconegallery at Sydney Contemporary — Sept 11-14, Carriageworks.
This image is very special to me. It was the first photograph I made on Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre that I recognised as something worth exhibiting - the beginning of the Salt series.
Salt 8, like all photographs from the early years of the project, predates digital photography and was made using a traditional 8×10 film camera. It also marked the first time I experienced water on the lake, and saw how it could transform the vast emptiness into something quietly surreal.
🎬 The second slide is the trailer for Salt — the film that grew out of the project and runs alongside the photographic series.
#SaltSeries #MurrayFredericks #SydneyContemporary #LakeEyre #ContemporaryPhotography #AustralianArt #LargeFormatPhotography #ARCONEGallery #PhotographicArt #ArtFilm #behindthescenesphotography
