Richard Woldendorp

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, earning enough money to buy land there. 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.

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. Walkabout, Australian Women's Weekly Vogue, government journals and many newspapers and RealTime. 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, 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.

In 2004 he was made a State Living Treasure of Western Australia for his contribution to the arts,

His work was celebrated in a retrospective in the Western Australian Art gallery in 2009, and another, Woldendorp: A Black and White Retrospective at Mundaring Arts Centre, in 2018.

Publications (1969) Hungerford, T. A. G. and Richard Woldendorp A million square : Western Australia . Melbourne: Thomas Nelson (Australia). (1983) Australia's West Perth, W.A Day Dawn Press. (1985) Australia, the Untamed Land photographs by Richard Woldendorp. Sydney: Reader's Digest. (1986) (text by John Scott, photographs by Richard Woldendorp) (1992) Journey through a landscape : Richard Woldendorp's Australia. West Perth, W.A : Sandpiper Press. (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 (1995) Australia, the untamed land photographs by Richard Woldendorp. Sydney : Reader's Digest. (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, (2003) (with text by Roger McDonald and Amanda Burton)