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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

The Gallery’s Acknowledgement of Country, and information on culturally sensitive and restricted content and the use of historic language in the collection can be found here.

Jeff Carter with his dog Annie Rose at Foxground NSW

2000 (printed 2017)
Robert McFarlane

inkjet print on paper (sheet: 48.5 cm x 33.0 cm, image: 30.5 cm x 20.3 cm)

Jeff Carter (1928-2010) was Australia’s great photographer of ‘ordinary’ Australians at work and leisure. When ‘asked to leave’ Melbourne Boys High School in his final year, 1946, he took to the road with a typewriter and camera, finding work in the high country with cattle, the subject of his first photo-story. In Rockhampton he met his first wife, a Norwegian sideshow motorcyclist; they had two children, Karen and Thor. He made a living from diverse jobs including tent boxing and trawling while producing stories and photographs for People, Pix, Women’s Weekly and Woman’s Day; in due course he became editor of Outdoors and Fishing. In 1955, he took up with a new partner, Mare Thompson-Read-Young, who was henceforth his collaborator and the mother of his children Goth and Vandal. In 1962 they moved to Foxground, near Kiama, where he lived for the rest of his life, and died. Together they brought forth hundreds of stories, books and the television series Wild Country, while their property, Glenrock, became a haven for endangered and injured native animals. Carter’s photographs are held by most major Australian galleries and there are more than 700 of his images in the collection of the National Library. A major retrospective of his works was held at the State Library of New South Wales in 2011.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
© Robert McFarlane/Copyright Agency, 2024

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. Works of art from the collection are reproduced as per the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The use of images of works from the collection may be restricted under the Act. Requests for a reproduction of a work of art can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

Artist and subject

Robert McFarlane (age 58 in 2000)

Jeff Carter (age 72 in 2000)

© National Portrait Gallery 2024
King Edward Terrace, Parkes
Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

Phone +61 2 6102 7000
ABN: 54 74 277 1196

The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

This website comprises and contains copyrighted materials and works. Copyright in all materials and/or works comprising or contained within this website remains with the National Portrait Gallery and other copyright owners as specified.

The National Portrait Gallery respects the artistic and intellectual property rights of others. The use of images of works of art reproduced on this website and all other content may be restricted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Requests for a reproduction of a work of art or other content can be made through a Reproduction request. For further information please contact NPG Copyright.

The National Portrait Gallery is an Australian Government Agency