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Jeff Freestone
My name is Jeff Freestone and I live in a small remote town in the heart of the Victorian High Country Australia. I moved here in 2017 with my family and it is where I discovered my love of nature and landscape photography
Michéla Griffith
In 2012 I paused by my local river and everything changed. I’ve moved away from what many expect photographs to be: my images deconstruct the literal and reimagine the subjective, reflecting the curiosity that water has inspired in my practice. Water has been my conduit: it has sharpened my vision, given me permission to experiment and continues to introduce me to new ways of seeing.
Sometimes I find that Matt Payne and I have independently been circling the same photographers (Matt featured Jeff in a Portrait of a Photographer in December 21). Since leaving the city and making a home in the High Country in the northeast of the state of Victoria, Australia, Jeff has dusted off his DSLR and found a new purpose in photographing the area. As many of us find, photography has been a means to see and experience much more, as well as a creative outlet. Some of Jeff’s most striking images are of the contorted forms of snow gum.
Would you like to start by telling readers a little about yourself – where you grew up, what your early interests were, and what you went on to do?
I currently live in a small remote town in the Victorian High Country (Australia) with my wife and three children. Originally both from Melbourne, we relocated to the high country in 2017, seeking a much simpler life for us and our kids away from the noise and chaos of city life.
Growing up, I had a love of drawing, mostly copying pictures and trying to replicate photos as best I could. I enjoyed all sorts of drawing, from portraiture to landscapes, basically, anything that I was attracted to, I would want to try and draw.
My interest in drawing carried on into school, where I relished art classes which then lead to me pursuing art and design subjects in secondary school. My love of the art and design field grew immensely in secondary school, and I began thinking about pursuing it as a career choice.
I went on to study graphic design however found it very difficult to secure a job after completing my studies. The industry was extremely competitive at the time, and I required further study to have any chance of securing a job. Consequently, the level of candidate selection for university was very high, and unfortunately, I missed out on securing an enrolment.