Freeman Wilford Patterson, CM

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 (b. September 25, 1937) is a Canadian nature photographer and writer born at Long Reach, New Brunswick.

He earned a B.A., from Acadia University

Acadia University

Acadia University is a predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level...

 and was granted a fellowship to study at Union Theological Seminary

Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York

Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...

 at Columbia University. After completing three years there, he taught for three more years in Edmonton before finally deciding to pursue photography full time.

Patterson has since authored several books on photographic techniques and theory, including Photography for the Joy of It (1977), Photography and the Art of Seeing (1979) and Photography of Natural Things (1982). These books were issued in revised formats in 2006.

Patterson has also authored books centred on his nature photography, such as Namaqualand: Garden of the Gods (1984), Portraits of Earth (1987), In a Canadian Garden (1989), The Last Wilderness: Images of the Canadian Wild (1990) and One Planet, One Man (1994). In 2001, Patterson and co-author Andre Gallant, produced Photo Impressionism and The Subjective Image.

Together with photographer and friend Colla Swart

Colla Swart

Colla Swart, born 1930, is a well-known South African Photographer. She started professional photography in 1982, and has become famous for her nature and people photography in and around her birth town of Kamieskroon...

, he has hosted many photographic workshops in Kamieskroon

Kamieskroon

Kamieskroon is a small town in the Kamiesberg Local Municipality, lying in the foothills of the Kamiesberge at an elevation of approximately 800 m . The town is more or less in the centre of Namaqualand, about 70 km to the south of Springbok, Northern Cape, South Africa...

, Northern Cape

Northern Cape

The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of an international park shared with Botswana...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

In the 1980s he contracted Hepatitis B, which gradually led to an extremely debilitated condition. In 2000 he received a liver transplant

Organ transplant

Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...

 which failed. A second organ was located five days later, and he eventually recovered fully.

In 1985, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

.

External links

• Official website
• Interview, CBC Radio, Ideas, October 2010