ONGOING ART WORK
Freeman Patterson works in two closely related fields on a regular, ongoing basis; photography and visual design. He always has photographs or related projects in the imagining, planning, creation, or execution stage, and continually gives himself assignments that maintain, improve, and develop the craft aspects of his work and the quality of his seeing. Because he believes strongly that all art forms (visual, performing, literary, etc.) enrich and contribute to the development of the others, Freeman makes time for reading, writing, listening to music, watching films and videos, attending theatre, interacting with CD-ROM's, and meeting with artists and others involved in the arts.
EXHIBITIONS
Freeman has had six solo exhibitions of photographic prints: "Freeman Patterson: Monograph", The National Film Board of Canada, widely exhibited in Canada, the United States, and many other countries between 1973 and early 1980; A Moment In Time Gallery, Toronto, ON, 1974; North Market Arts Gallery, Saint John, NB, 1980; "One Planet, One Man," Aitken Bicentennial Exhibition Centre (Frazee Gallery), Saint John, NB, 1993, which toured to several other galleries in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, 1993-1995; "ShadowLight," The Royal Ontario Museum (Gallery of Contemporary Culture), Toronto, ON; "Odysseys," Tatar/Alexander Gallery, Toronto, ON, 1996; and "Bouquet", a second touring exhibition which opened at the Aitken Bicentennial Exhibition Centre, Saint John, NB in 1998. In addition, his prints have been included in numerous group exhibitions created by the National Film Board of Canada for New York's Museum of Modern Art and other galleries and museums around the world.
It is far more difficult to determine and describe Freeman's exhibitions of colour transparencies. Between 1963 and 1970, when he was endeavouring to establish himself as a photographer, he entered many competitive exhibitions (whose standards were approved by the Photographic Society of America) throughout North America and abroad, and had his images chosen for more than 500 of them. Subsequently, he sat on the juries of numerous such exhibitons. During this period, but especially since, he has made major audiovisual (slides with music) presentations to art groups of various sorts, art educators, and to the general public. An abbreviated list of North American cities where he has appeared includes Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, London, Toronto, Montreal, Fredericton, Saint John, Halifax, St. John's, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Atlanta, Dallas, Birmingham, Asheville, Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York, Hartford, and Boston. Many sponsors in these and other centres, have requested return engagements.
BOOKS
Freeman is the sole author and illustrator of four instructional books on photography and visual design, which are widely-recognized as articulate, practical, and inspirational texts on the subject and continue to sell world wide. A fifth book in the series, co-authored with André Gallant, was published in 2001. (These books are listed first, below.) He is also the sole author and photographer for three large-format books, and has collaborated on other major books.
SOLO BOOKS
Photography For The Joy Of It: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1977, 168 pp., 60 colour plates; (revised edition, Key Porter Books,1989), cloth and paper
Photography And The Art Of Seeing: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1979, 156 pp., 67 colour plates; (revised edition, Key Porter Books, 1989), cloth and paper
Photography Of Natural Things: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1982, 168 pp., 68 colour plates; (revised edition, Key Porter Books, 1989), cloth and paper
Photographing The World Around You: A visual design workshop: Key Porter Books, 1994, 168 pp., 84 colour plates, 7 black-and-white, paper
Namaqualand: Garden Of The Gods: Key Porter Books, 1984, 128 pp., 61 colour plates, cloth
Portraits Of Earth: Key Porter Books, 1987, 180 pp., 112 colour plates, cloth
ShadowLight: A Photographer's Life: HarperCollins of Canada, 1996, 176 pp., 100 colour plates, 15 black-and-white, cloth plus limited boxed edition, (also available with CD-ROM -- Creating Pictures: A Visual Design Workshop).
Odysseys: Meditations and Thoughts for a Life's Journey: HarperCollins of Canada, 1998, 96 pp, 56 colour plates, cloth plus slipcased edition with limited edition print.
The Garden: Key Porter Books, 2003, 192 pages, 107 colour plates, cloth.
COLLABORATIONS
Photographic author, Safari To Serowe, Gage Educational Publishing, 1969, many colour images, paper (for use in schools, including those of Botswana)
Photographic author, Tribal Drums, McGraw-Hill, 1970, 172 pp., 30 black-and-white images
Photographic author and contributing writer, In A Canadian Garden, Viking Studio Books (Penguin), 1989, 176 pp., 210 colour plates, cloth
Principal writer, contributing photographer, photo editor, The Last Wilderness, Key Porter Books, 1990, 180 pp., 137 colour plates, cloth
Co-author with André Gallant, PhotoImpressionism and The Subjective Image, Key Porter Books, 2001, 160 pp, 100 colour plates, paper
Freeman contributed 55 photographs to the Canadian centennial book, Canada: A Year Of The Land, published in 1967 by the National Film Board of Canada, and many images to other books published by the NFB, including A Time To Dream, Canada, and Between Friends: Entre Amis (Canada's official gift to the United States for its bicentennary, 1976).
(Related information) Freeman has written and photographed extensively for photographic magazines in Canada and the United States, for Canadian gardening and motorcycling magazines, and written for CBC radio. He was creative advisor for A Gift Of River, a video about the St. John River.
TEACHING
Freeman began teaching photography and visual design in the early 1960's, primarily to small groups. His knowledge and presentation skills soon attracted notice, and by the early 1970's the demand for his instructional programs enabled him (with a teaching partner and staff) to establish a workshop program at Shampers Bluff. Eight ten-day courses were offered the first year, and all of them sold out (15 persons per course). He continued the program at Shampers Bluff for five years, then shifted its location to Grand Manan, later to Gagetown, and back to Shampers Bluff again in 1990. From the beginning participants came from all over North America, and from Europe, Africa, and Australia. In recent years the number of photographers from the Maritime provinces attending these courses has increased substantially.
Freeman made several visits to Africa between 1967 and 1983, three of them at the request of the Photographic Society of Southern Africa. As a result of these contacts and others, he co-founded (with Colla Swart) the Namaqualand Photographic Workshops in 1984, and travels to the desert village of Kamieskroon once or twice every year to teach three or four week-long workshops. This project has expanded so rapidly that Freeman now works with several other instructors and no longer participates in every program. Freeman has also given numerous, week-long workshops in the United States, New Zealand, and Israel and has completed lecture tours in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia.
Every year from 1973 to the present Freeman has received a large number of invitations to give teaching programs or all-day seminars to photographic groups, art institutions, and other educational groups and bodies. A very short list of those he has accepted includes invitations from the National Ballet of Canada school, the Music Teachers of Nova Scotia, the Canadian Society of Art Educators, the Science Teachers of Ontario Association, the Canadian Nature Federation, the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), the University of Utah, the Maine Photographic Workshops, Images Alberta, the National Association For Photographic Art, the Photographic Society of America, the North American Nature Photography Association, and the Photographic Society of Southern Africa.
HONOURS AND AWARDS
1967 - National Film Board of Canada, Gold Medal for Photographic Excellence (Freeman was one of the first two photographers to receive this award.)
1971 - Photographic Society of America, Associate of the Photographic Society of America (APSA) for contribution to amateur photography at the individual, national, and international levels
1975 - Federation Internationale de l'Art Photographique, (Berne, Switzerland), Hon. EFIAP, (highest award of the federation; limited to 200 living persons) - Elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art
1976 - Photographic Society of Southern Africa, Honourary Fellowship (Hon. F.P.S.S.A.)
1980 - University of New Brunswick, Doctorate of Letters (D.Litt.)
Photographic Society of America, Fellow of the Photographic Society of America (FPSA) for writing and lecturing about photography
1984 - National Association for Photographic Art, Gold Medal for Distinction in Photography
1985 - The Order of Canada (C.M.)
1989 - Acadia University, Doctorate of Civil Law (D.C.L.)
1990 - Photography Society of America, Progress Medal (This is the society's highest award. Previous recipients include Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, Jacques Cousteau, and the Eastman Kodak company.)
1991 - New Brunswick Conservation Council, Milton Gregg Award for Environmental Stewardship
1994 - New Brunswick School Trustees' Association, Honourary Life Member
1995 - Photographic Society of Southern Africa, Fellowship (F.P.S.S.A.); awarded on the basis of results from a widely-juried selection of 36 colour images
1996 - Acadia University Associated Alumni/ae, tenth recipient of the association's Distinguished Service Award
1997 - Fellow, New Brunswick College of Craft and Design
1997 - 7th annual $10,000.00 Strathbutler Award (this award is given annually to recognize excellence in the craft and/or visual arts in New Brunswick as well as an artist's substantial contribution to the respective fields over a significant period of time.)
1998 - Fellow, North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA)
2001 - Lifetime Achievement Award, North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA)
2003 - Miller Brittain Award of Excellence for Visual Arts (New Brunswick Arts Board). |
