Dexter Photographer Captures Life in Pictures

Retired University of Michigan Professor Fred Beutler is on a mission to preserve his life and the lives of loved ones through a new photography project titled "Life Begins at 80."

Beutler recently displayed a collage of photos at the Silver Maples Retirement Community in Chelsea during May and June.

Beutler, a member of the , got started at the tender age of 7 with a box camera, and later shared a folding bellows camera with his brother. Their father, an advanced amateur photographer with his own darkroom, inspired his sons to enjoy the art. Beutler went on to take pictures for his high school yearbook, and thus began a life-long passion.

When he moved from California to Ann Arbor to become professor of electrical engineering and computer science at U of M, he bought a Canon interchangeable lens rangefinder camera, and later had a series of Leica cameras.

In 1969, his wife got him involved in the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, where he spent 15 years taking photographs of theater activities and mounted them into posters. Photos also appeared in the Ann Arbor News, theater magazines and actor portfolios.

“I found theatrical photography to be very challenging, because of the desirability of timing the photograph to climactic moments of the production,” he said.

After joining the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor in 2003, Beutler was soon doing photography for the club, including weekly meetings and service activities. He and his wife have traveled to India, Brazil and Mexico and taken photographs in connection with humanitarian international service. He has also worked on special assignment with other civic organizations.

Beutler began displaying his photography after joining the Ann Arbor Camera Club in 2007 and went on to win several competitions. He has taken courses at the University of Michigan, Washtenaw Community College and Eastern Michigan University, and two National Geographic photography workshops.

He and his wife, an oil painter, have had a booth at the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair and at art fairs in Birmingham, Novi and Pinckney. His photography has also been in several exhibitions.

“I’m motivated by an internal drive, rather than the need to produce a marketable product,” Beutler said. “This inspiration strikes at unpredictable times. Most of my photos were taken when traveling. Weeks may pass without an acceptable shot, while at other times I shoot frantically in a short period.”

Beutler enjoys digital photography, and the freedom of post-production processing.

“This is because I think much as a painter does,” he said. “A photographer shoots the world as it is, whereas a painter’s world is what he or she wants it to be. My artistic vision is fundamentally painterly, as modified by the demands of the photographic image process. Now I can modify what I see to what I would like it to look like. I can combine disparate elements of several pictures, and eliminate or modify features at will.”