From the 1940s when he went on the road hitchhiking with his camera and typewriter in tow until his death in 2010 Jeff Carter tirelessly honoured “ordinary Australians”. He documented and celebrated the battlers, itinerant bush workers, fruit pickers, fishermen, mill hands and other labourers capturing the mood of the country’s working classes. He also photographed Australia’s cities capturing the nascent coastal lifestyle that would later become a hallmark for Australian iconography.

He left behind one of Australia’s most remarkable and historically significant photographic archives – in all, more than 150,000 images of Australian life. Carter had authored and illustrated 20 books on rural, coastal and outback life. As a photojournalist his images and essays were featured in newspapers and local and international picture magazines. He also filmed, wrote and produced Wild Country, a popular and widely acclaimed award winning television series about Australia that was sold around the world. With his second wife and long time collaborator, author Mare Carter; he also established a popular educational wildlife refuge and park at Foxground in New South Wales.

In the early 1990s Carter began exhibiting his work for the first time, and its importance was quickly recognised by leading art galleries, museums and private collectors both in Australia and overseas.

Carter died aged 82 years, just prior to the opening of a major retrospective of his work, curated by Sandra Byron, for the State Library of New South Wales. The library acquired all of the works in the exhibition for its permanent collection and the show toured extensively throughout regional NSW in 2012 and 2013. To view the illustrated exhibition brochure click here.

This exhibition was accompanied by a documentary on Carter’s life and work Inland Heart: The photographs of Jeff Carter by award winning filmmaker Catherine Hunter. This draws together the themes and passions of a lifetime of photographic enquiry and includes his final road trip and interviews.
To order this DVD please email your request here.

In 2015 the National Library of Australia further added to its representation of Carter’s work by acquiring a very significant selection of Carter’s negatives, prints and documents. These works are in addition to its existing holdings which have already been digitized and can be viewed here.

1946-49 on the road (hitch-hiking) with typewriter and camera, selling short stories and illustrated fact articles based on his experiences working with horses, cattle, professional fishermen out of Eden, fruit picking, road working gangs, hotel bouncer, travelling sideshows, sugar milling, cotton and woollen mills, etc.

1949-54 became editor of Outdoors & Fishing magazine, while continuing to freelance to a wide variety of Australian magazines. Became increasingly interested in photography, which was entirely self taught.

1954-72 resigned as editor to travel rural and outback Australia in a series of land rovers as a fulltime freelance photo-journalist. Lived exclusively from sales to such magazines as: Walkabout, Pix, People, Womens Weekly, Womans Day, Man, Everybody’s, The Bulletin, Wheels, Modern Motor, etc., plus newspaper illustrated supplements.
Also contributor to international magazines via agencies camera press and Black Star, including Life, National Geographic, Paris match, Epoca, Picture Post, Esquire, Merian.

1962-72 settled on a 45 hectare farm at Foxground on NSW near south coast. Continued travelling coastal and outback Australia, producing a wide range of illustrated magazine articles on the lifestyles of coastal and rural Australians. Wrote and illustrated seventeen books on his adventures and encounters.

1972-74 filmed, wrote and produced television series Wild Country for the Seven Network. At the 1974 Australian Film Awards, an episode won several awards, including Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Editing. The series later showed in ten overseas countries, following showings at the annual television festival in Cannes, France.

1975-80 Lived and worked in Spain and other European countries.

1981-85 Head teacher of photography at the Wollongong campus of the National Art School.

1985-90 Continued freelance magazine activities, travelling widely in outback Australia and Europe. Wrote and illustrated several more books.

1991 Showed work to Sandra Byron, then Curator of Photography at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, who acquired the first group of his images for a public collection. Following this his works were acquired for the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia, The National Library of Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Australian National Museum, The Powerhouse Museum, other major public institutions, corporate bodies and private collectors in Australia and overseas.

1992-2002 Continued to travel and photograph in Australia and Europe.

2004 Jeff Carter received the Australia Council’s Visual Arts/Craft Board emeritus award.

2005 A Retrospective of Jeff Carter’s black and white images was published by New Holland Press.

Carter’s works have also been exhibited in countries including Japan, Portugal, United States and France.