{{Short description|Dutch-Australian photographer (1927–2023)}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} thumb '''Richard Leo Woldendorp''' AM (1 January 1927 – April 2023) was a Dutch-Australian photographer known for his aerial photography of Australian geography.
==Early life== Born in Utrecht in The Netherlands and brought up by his mother, a sole parent, in Leeuwarden, from 1934 Richard Woldendorp was educated at boarding school in Berkelouw and studied design in his teen years before joining the army at nineteen. He was posted to Indonesia, and after 3 years was presented with the choice of returning to Holland or migrating to Australia, and decided on the latter. On his way to Sydney on 5 January 1951 he stopped in Fremantle, he stayed with a friend's family in Darlington and worked as a house painter,<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last1=Woldendorp|first1=Richard|title=Woldendorp: a black and white retrospective|last2=Hegarty|first2=Lisa|last3=Stroud|first3=Clare|last4=Mundaring Arts Centre|date=2018|language=English|oclc=1133230050}}</ref> earning enough money to buy land there.<ref name=":3" />
Before a return trip to Holland, traveling via the Suez Canal and then overland through Europe in 1955, Woldendorp bought a folding Voigtländer 6x9cm. Impressed with the creative potential of photography, he visited galleries in Holland to see work of contemporary practitioners Henri Cartier-Bresson and W. Eugene Smith who used 35mm film cameras. Accordingly, in the late 1950s, he too purchased a Leica, but desiring better resolution, traded that for medium-format Pentacon single lens reflex (SLR) and Rolleiflex square format cameras.<ref name=":1" />
== Professional photographer == Returning to Perth, Woldendorp joined the Cottesloe Camera Club and in 1961 won 1st and 3rd places in the Craven A National Portrait competition which encouraged him to become professional. Moving to the east coast he networked with other photographers and through his work for ''Walkabout'' magazine its editor Brian McArdle introduced him to the association of Australian photographers Group M,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Group M, A small selection of photograph's by Richard Woldendorp|url=https://www.photo-web.com.au/GroupM/members/RichardWoldendorp/default.html|access-date=2022-02-25|website=www.photo-web.com.au}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|author1=Philip Bentley|title=DEEPER FEELING, WIDER VISION Group M and the Moggs Creek Clickers|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/235142853|publication-date=1996|publisher=Public History|access-date=25 February 2022}}</ref> which he joined, exhibiting documentary imagery in his first exhibition, the group's ''Urban Woman'' of 1963 in Melbourne's Museum of Modern Art Australia, which toured Australian cities including Perth and internationally.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Richard Woldendorp interviewed by John Bannister in the Battye Library collection [sound recording]. |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-220261650/listen |access-date=2022-02-28 |website=Trove}}</ref>
In Sydney Woldendorp met Max Dupain and David Moore whose example encouraged him to show his work to government departments and magazine publishers, before recognising that the largely undocumented cultural landscape of the west and its resources boom were attractive subject matter to them, so returned to WA.<ref name=":1" /> Government and other agencies sought his imagery of a vast outback, mining, government programs interacting with indigenous cultures, new infrastructure and attractive housing, to promote Perth and WA for immigration, industry and tourism. With no need of a studio, his contracts with Warnock Sandford Advertising, the Australian Tourist Commission, Australian News and Information Bureau and other Government bodies, his freelance work satisfied his love of travel and provided a living selling also to magazines ''The Bulletin,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Crouch|first1=Wallace|last2=Woldendorp (photographs)|first2=Richard|date=9 March 1968|title=The Bulletin reports on The West|journal=The Bulletin|volume=89|issue=4592|pages=39}}</ref> Walkabout,<ref>{{Citation | author1=Australian Geographical Society | title=The Ways Of Children (1 September 1963) | journal=Walkabout | publication-date=1963-09-01 | publisher=Australian National Travel Association | volume=29 | issue=9 | issn=0043-0064}}</ref> Australian Women's Weekly<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hewett|first1=Jenni|last2=Woldendorp (pictures)|first2=Richard|date=6 September 1978|title=A bush setting for stylish living|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51394363|journal=The Australian Women's Weekly|pages=104–5}}</ref> Vogue,'' government journals and many newspapers and ''RealTime.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Marshall|first=Jonathon|date=April 2007|title=unnerving and uncanny : jonathan marshall takes in strut and skadada|journal=Real Time|volume=78|pages=33}}</ref>''
== Aerial photography == As he took the opportunity to make photographs during long-distance travel by plane over Western Australia for assignments, Woldendorp became especially known for his semi-abstract aerial colour photography,<ref>"Dutch-born practitioner Richard Woldendorp creates aerial images of the Australian continent; breathtakingly vast, they emphasize the recurring patterns and abstract shapes created by the combined effects of nature and human activity." Ennis, Helen (2007) ''Photography and Australia''. Reaktion Books p.68</ref> which he exhibited as a professional artist in his first solo exhibition at David Foulkes Taylor's Triangle gallery in the Perth suburb of Crawley in 1964 and in a collaboration with bird photographer Peter Slater, published his first book ''The Hidden Face of Australia'' in 1968.<ref name=":1" /> He followed it with ''A Million Square'' (1969) in partnership with writer Tom T.A.G. Hungerford. He returned to Indonesia, reviving his earlier familiarity with the country and its people and published ''Indonesia'' in 1972. Subsequently, he has produced over twenty books on land, industry and people.
In 1979 Woldendorp and his wife Lyn established the first picture agency in Western Australia; ''Photo Index'', a success which over twenty years provided freedom to travel and to make work with artistic integrity.<ref name=":1" />
In 2007, Woldendorp's imagery was used for projections onto performers' bodies in Aureo's ''Skadada'', directed by Katie Lavers, at His Majesty's Theatre, Perth, 17–20 January.''<ref name=":0" />''
== Recognition == Woldendorp was made a Fellow of the ''Australian Institute of Professional Photography'' in 1991, and an Honorary Life Member in 1997.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Curtis|first=Paul|title=History of Professional Photography in Australia.|date=2014|publisher=Rose Publishing & Co|isbn=978-0-9757266-1-7|location=Mona Vale, NSW|pages=257–8|language=English|oclc=894322329}}</ref>
In 2004 he was made a State Living Treasure of Western Australia for his contribution to the arts,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /> and in 2012 he was recognised "for services to the arts as a landscape photographer" and made a Member of the Order of Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2012-06-10|title=Queen's Birthday Honours|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/queens-birthday-honours-20120610-2049o.html|access-date=2022-02-26|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|language=en}}</ref>
His work was celebrated in a retrospective in the Western Australian Art gallery in 2009,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.artgallery.wa.gov.au/exhibitions/Richard_Woldendorp_Abstract_Earth.asp | title =The Photography of Richard Woldendorp|access-date= 14 October 2018|website=Art Gallery WA}}</ref> and another, ''Woldendorp: A Black and White Retrospective'' at Mundaring Arts Centre, in 2018.<ref name=":1" />
== Death ==
Woldendorp died in April 2023.<ref>https://www.westannouncements.com.au/browse/funeral-notices/view/woldendorp-richard?set=funeral-notices-last7 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423205105/https://www.westannouncements.com.au/browse/funeral-notices/view/woldendorp-richard?set=funeral-notices-last7 |date=23 April 2023 }} Funeral notice advertised, but no death notice placed.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://fremantlepress.com.au/2023/04/26/vale-richard-woldendorp-am-january-1927-to-april-2023/|title=Vale Richard Woldendorp AM (January 1927 to April 2023)|publisher=Fremantle Press|date=26 April 2023|access-date=11 May 2023}}</ref>
== Publications == * (1969) Hungerford, T. A. G. and Richard Woldendorp ''A million square : Western Australia'' . Melbourne: Thomas Nelson (Australia). {{ISBN|0-17-001823-7}} * (1983) ''Australia's West'' Perth, W.A Day Dawn Press. {{ISBN|0-9596934-1-6}} * (1985) ''Australia, the Untamed Land'' photographs by Richard Woldendorp. Sydney: Reader's Digest. {{ISBN|0-949819-61-1}} * (1986) {{cite book | last = Scott | first = John | year = 1986 | title = Landscapes of Western Australia | location = Claremont | publisher = Aeolian Press}} (text by John Scott, photographs by Richard Woldendorp) * (1992) ''Journey through a landscape : Richard Woldendorp's Australia''. West Perth, W.A : Sandpiper Press. {{ISBN|0-646-09386-X}}<ref>Richard Waldendorp - feature article on his work - especially aerial photographs from "Journey through a Landscape" Australian Style, January 1993, p. 82</ref> * (1994) ''Australia's flying doctors: the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia'' photographs by Richard Woldendorp; text by Roger McDonald. Chippendale, N.S.W. : Pan Macmillan {{ISBN|0-7329-0793-4}} * (1995) ''Australia, the untamed land'' photographs by Richard Woldendorp. Sydney : Reader's Digest. {{ISBN|0-86438-933-7}} * (1999) ''Down to Earth: Australian Landscapes''. North Fremantle, Fremantle Arts Centre Press in association with Sandpiper Press (text by Tim Winton) * (2001) ''Design by nature'' photographs by Richard Woldendorp; text by Victoria Laurie. North Fremantle, W.A. : Fremantle Arts Centre Press in association with Sandpiper Press, {{ISBN|1-86368-349-6}} * (2003) {{cite book | last = Woldendorp | first = Richard | year = 2003 | title = Wool: the Australian story | location = Fremantle | publisher = Fremantle Arts Centre Press | isbn = 1-86368-396-8}} (with text by Roger McDonald and Amanda Burton)
==Notes==
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==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite journal | first = George | last = Seddon | authorlink = George Seddon (academic) | title = Journeys through landscape : a discussion of the work of Richard Woldendorp | year = 1991 | journal = Westerly | issue = December 1991}} Reprinted in Seddon, George (1995) ''Swan Song''.<ref>Seddon, George, Swan song : reflections on Perth and Western Australia, 1956-1995 Nedlands, W.A. : Centre for Studies in Australian Literature, University of Western Australia, 1995.</ref> * {{cite news | first = Ingrid | last = Jacobson | title = Photo finish | work = Sunday Times | date = 8 August 1999 | pages = Home section, p.28}} * ''Australian Style'', January 1993, ''p.'' 82. * ''Landscope'', Spring 1987, ''p.'' 51–54. * ''Western Outlook'', October 1993, ''p.'' 28-29
==External links== * [http://www.richardwoldendorp.com Official website] * [http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/gateways/archive/74/Woldendorp.html A procurement of Aerial photographs by Woldendorp] (National Library of Australia) {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woldendorp, Richard}} Category:1927 births Category:2023 deaths Category:Photographers from Western Australia Category:Dutch emigrants to Australia Category:Artists from Utrecht (city) Category:Artists from Perth, Western Australia Category:Dutch landscape photographers Category:Aerial photographers Category:Darlington, Western Australia Category:Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Category:Australian landscape photographers Category:20th-century Dutch photographers Category:21st-century Dutch photographers Category:20th-century Australian photographers Category:21st-century Australian photographers