"There is beauty all around you...All you have to do is see."
Talking Beauty with Fred Neveu, Author of Seeing Beauty: A Lifetime of Landscape Photography
If, like Fred Neveu, you spent much of sixty years peering through a camera lens looking for beauty, there is little doubt you would find some. We can also assume that beauty would reveal more and more of itself because you invested the time to “see what makes each place unique,” as Fred likes to say.
Knowing this, it’s difficult to decide whether to be envious of Fred or just grateful to him for sharing his extraordinary gift of Seeing Beauty: A Lifetime of Landscape Photography, a stunning collection of nature photographs from around North America.
Seeing Beauty earned a glowing Clarion review from Peter Dabbene and we jumped at the opportunity to put Peter in touch with Fred for the following conversation.
Enjoy.
Was it difficult to choose the photographs for your book, Seeing Beauty: A Lifetime of Landscape Photography? It’s intended as a retrospective of your work, but space considerations can sometimes get in the way of such an all-encompassing project. Did you have to leave out any favorites because of limited space? Did you rely on others to help make tough decisions about what made the cut, or did you control that process yourself?
I suppose there was some difficulty in selecting images for publication because, after fifty years of photography, I had to go through many photos. I respected the judgement of my editor, Jim Steinberg, and my book designer, Jennifer Barry—Jim recommended Jennifer—and she was better qualified to select which photos to include as she had no personal or emotional interest in any particular image that I myself might have. I paid her good money for her expertise and I got what I paid for!
The only photo I wanted to add is the photo of Mt. Hayden (page 51). I would have liked to include one that showed what it was like to get a photo of Masa Arch (page 114), but other than that the selection was up to them.
In the book, you offer tips on composition and equipment choices—do you think that kind of attention to craft is waning with the ubiquity of phone cameras and editing apps? Is there a valuable, tactile connection that’s being lost in the process with more people using computer software than darkrooms? Or is photography just changing for the better?
I believe that in order to make a good photograph there needs to be coordination of the human eye and brain with the camera. I have used some of the best equipment available and have made bad photos. I am very happy with modern equipment, even cell phone cameras because the images they produce are correctly (mostly) exposed and focused. If the camera image is bad, Photoshop will not be able to fix it. This is not a criticism of Photoshop’s ability. Like any other tool, Photoshop is a wonderful help if fine adjustments are needed for any image capture. At this time no one makes a system that can match the mark 1 human eyeball.
I learned photography using chemicals and film, but I would never go back to film because there is so much that I can do with a digital image. A good example is contrast. Photograph a black cat on snow—with film it was exposed for the shadows and developed for the highlights.
Writer Susan J. Tweit provides the book’s text. How did you and Susan come in contact, and how did you choose her for this project? Can you describe the interview and editing process that was used?
Jim Steinberg suggested Susan as a writer. I am a photographer, not a writer. There are many hours of telephone and video conferencing in the making of this book. If you like my book it is because the end product was a team effort. The book has my name on it in large printout but without the efforts of Jim, Susan, and Jennifer, the book would not be worth much.
Can you describe your thoughts and opinions about photography as art, and the inevitable aspects of commercial sales that come with many artistic endeavors? How much do you involve yourself with selling posters, prints, and lithographs?
Art is creating something that brings out a good feeling. Art should be pleasing to the eye or something that you may touch, smell, eat, or drink. This does not mean that art can not be used to illustrate something that is not pleasant. Remember the images of concentration camps? We do not need to have atrocities repeated over and over again. One of my physicians has a photo of mine above his desk because it relaxes him and that fact makes me happy.
I do try to make my photographs available to anyone who may enjoy it. Nowadays, anyone can purchase a camera and take a technically “good” photograph. I am not into photography to get rich. If you like what I do, that is a reward that does not have a price tag—but I won’t turn down money.
The book explains your “origin story” and some of the influences on your photography. Was there a particular moment or experience that caused you to “fall in love” with photography? Are there any individuals who stand out as especially important influences or mentors?
My interest in photography was started when father gave me my first camera. I love the Walt Disney “true life adventures.” We live in a wonderful world—if we as a species do not screw it up. One does not need to be rich to appreciate a beautiful sunset or a rose, but when in the middle of a war or starving, such things are difficult to enjoy.
At the beginning of my book is a quote from the Navajo Blessingway: “With beauty before me I walk, With beauty behind me I walk, With beauty below me I walk, With beauty all around me I walk.” I cannot express it better than that and that is what I want from photography.
The internet allowed the transmission of information at unprecedented levels, and now we have a problem of “information overload,” in which the process of distinguishing between good (reliable) and bad (unreliable) information is critical. Do you see the abundance of internet images in the same way?
With digital cameras and then phone cameras, there are many more images than there were pre-internet. Do you see it as an “overload” problem? Or do you think it’s okay if a lot more low-quality (unprofessional) images exist, because that’s the cost of getting great photos from amateurs—along with ease of use and the ability to share images?
Information overload! I do not see living without it. I know of two people who are functionally illiterate. They get no pleasure from reading. Before trains, planes, or cars, travel was difficult. I think one needs to be able to filter out what you do not need. I can remember the time before home computers. If I wanted to find out about something, I could look it up in an encyclopedia but now, with my computer, I have access to just about anything that has ever been published. In addition to the ease of access, no one could afford an encyclopedia that big.
You’ve seen a lot of beautiful places, and captured the best of them through your photographs. If you could return to one place in the world that you’ve already visited, where would it be? If you could visit any place that you’ve never visited, all expenses paid, where would you choose to go?
If I could go anywhere again? This is very difficult. I would like to go back to all the places I have been only to do a better job of photography because I have learned so much by doing it. Each place has its own thing. I do remember rafting the Grand Canyon. Seven days of beauty go past. At that time, all I had was a videotape camera. Now I would be able to make video and still photos with my Nikon D850.
Seeing Beauty offers a great, enjoyable overview of your body of work, with many memorable photographs. But if you had to pick one photograph of yours to represent your work, which would it be?
Extremely difficult to pick out one photo. I like the cover photo, Oxbow Bend and Spirit Island in Canada. The world has been much blessed with natural beauty.
FRED NEVEU
SEEING BEAUTY: A LIFETIME OF LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY
Fred Neveu (Photographer)
Portfolio Publications (Nov 25, 2023)
2023 INDIES Finalist Photography (Adult Nonfiction)
Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5
Seeing Beauty is a wonderful treasury of photographs with insights into the artist’s process.
Wisconsin-based landscape photographer Fred Neveu’s retrospective collection Seeing Beauty illuminates his inspirations, process, and legacy.
Wildlife, human beings, and trains sometimes appear in these striking images, but their primary foci are natural landscapes. Some showcase Arizona canyons and Colorado valleys; there are also trees in Wyoming, waterfalls in Oregon, and notes about using a long shutter speed when photographing waterfalls to preserve a sense of motion in the final image. Two gorgeous photographs taken at the same place at the Grand Canyon, but with different lighting, are a quick, remarkable lesson in highlighting different natural features.
The images are organized into chapters based on their subjects’ locations, with divisions for Utah and “Indian Country,” for example. It’s a logical, intuitive system of categorization. However, a few photographs are placed apart from their complete descriptive texts, requiring some page-turning to pair the image with its full story.
The photographs themselves demonstrate Neveu’s stated aim: “Take time to see what makes each place unique.” An aging barn on Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park serves as a stark reminder of the temporary nature of human structures when compared with the immense mountains behind it. Another photograph, taken at Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, captures a wide array of colors at sunrise: blue water, green trees, the pink-orange of the morning sky, and the snow-white of distant mountaintops.
The text adopts a casual interview style, exploring Neveu’s favorite subjects and locations, influences, and techniques. The questions and answers are embedded within full, elegant paragraphs that cover the emotional impacts of Neveu’s work, as with his first views of Yosemite Valley. Humor is also present, as around his love of steam trains: “I’m a ‘Ferroequinologist’…‘Ferro’ for iron, ‘equinologist’ for horse-studier. I study iron horses.”
Neveu’s technical discussions are brief and accessible, as with his direct insights on the way that light strikes different surfaces. He also waxes rhapsodic about his old Hasselblad camera and describes taking great care in setting up photographs—choosing the right lens, having an eye for composition, and being patient for the right kind of sunlight. The result is a book that both collects images and serves as a testament to the photographer’s love of his craft.
With reminiscences and tributes from teachers, mentors, friends, and peers, Seeing Beauty is a wonderful treasury of photographs that reflect the photographer’s belief that “There is beauty all around you. All you have to do is see.”
Reviewed by Peter Dabbene
Peter Dabbene
