Murray Fredericks

Murray Fredericks (b.1970) is one of Australia’s most distinctive and widely acclaimed contemporary photographers, recognised for a practice that transforms remote and elemental landscapes into meditative studies of light, perception and duration.

Born in Eora/Sydney, Fredericks studied politics and economics at the University of Sydney before undertaking extensive travel through the Middle East, the Himalaya and the Australian interior – formative experiences that shaped his enduring engagement with vast environments and the psychological dimensions of place. Having developed a rigorous technical approach through years of independent practice, he later completed postgraduate studies at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales.

From the outset of his career, Fredericks has pursued an inquiry into the encounter between the human mind and expansive, reduced landscapes. His work seeks to move beyond the “surface exotic”, privileging duration and attentiveness over spectacle. Through prolonged solo journeys to remote and often extreme locations, he has developed a visual language in which horizon, atmosphere and abstraction become vehicles for reflecting on perception, presence and the experience of time.

“Rather than treating landscape as scenery, I understood it as a field in which perception unfolds, where light, space and duration become the true subject,” says Fredericks in a profile published online alongside the announcement, in February 2026, of his representation by Michael Reid Sydney + Berlin. “The landscape functions as the medium through which emotional and psychological states are registered, particularly those that emerge through prolonged solitude and complete immersion over weeks or months at a time.”

Fredericks’s photographs and films have been exhibited widely throughout Australia and internationally, including presentations at Paris Photo, AIPAD New York and the Museum of Photography in Bogotá, alongside major exhibitions at institutions such as the National Gallery of Victoria and the Samstag Museum of Art. His acclaimed documentary Salt, for which he served as cinematographer and co-director, received multiple international awards including the Golden Frog for Best Cinematography at Camerimage. His work is held in significant public and private collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and Artbank, as well as prominent international collections.

“Over decades, Murray has redefined the visual language of the Australian landscape, distilling vast and remote environments into meditative studies of light, horizon and abstraction,” says our galleries’ Chairman and Director, Michael Reid OAM. “His body of landscape work stands among the most significant photographic interpretations of place produced in this country.”

For all enquiries, please email dean@michaelreid.com.au