Frederick J. Beutler’s “My Window to the World” color digital photographs at the main branch of the Ann Arbor District Library heartily illustrate this local professional photographer’s cheerful approach to his art.

A retired University of Michigan professor of electrical engineering and computer science, Beutler’s installed a spirited display of art photography in the AADL’s third-floor gallery that features an eclectic blend of landscapes, portraits, and slices of life that he calls “town and country.”

These photographs — taken on trips to six continents and 12 countries — are parts of an extended travelogue whose expertise is unquestionable. But what makes the work even more memorable is his determinedly relaxed approach to finding his images.

“As a photographer,” says Beutler in his gallery statement, “I let intuition be my guide, taking those photos that please me. These may include landscapes, human interest scenes, portraits, humorous situations, textures, and colors.

“My artistic process is fundamentally painterly, as modified by the demands of the photographic image process. I let technology serve me, taking the same liberties as a painter might to modify the original photograph to produce my idea of reality.”

Beutler’s got a superb eye. It’s readily apparent in his portraits, where his camera captures his subjects with an artless spontaneity. The six portraits in this exhibit — ranging from Mexico and India to Greece, Israel, and Nepal — are remarkable in their informal psychological complexity. Beutler’s camera serves as the invisible narrator of his subject’s story.

For example, “United in Faith,” taken in Israel, is a mediation on piety in which where a rabbi sits a few feet away from a standing military officer. “Sisters,” taken in Mexico, find two young girls laughing with the unguarded joy possible only in the most loving of relations. And the extraordinary “Mother and Child,” taken in Nepal, finds Beutler artfully screening what would have ordinarily been an impressive, exotic cityscape to emphasize a young mother with child riding her hip.

Yet Beutler’s seven landscape photographs in this display are collectively the most interesting artworks. Here, once can sense his enthusiasm as the composition is immaculately framed yet also bursting with potential.

“Double Arch,” taken at Arches National Park near Moab, Utah, is a near-otherworldly landscape in which two massive sandstone spires compete with a contrasting cloud cover formation for attention. Beutler’s camera captures this park’s famed double arch at a far enough distance to dwarf its rock-climbing visitors, giving the photograph a monumental sense of scale. He then heightens the dramatic effect by emphasizing the rich rust sandstone against a sparkling blue and white sky.

By contrast, the haunting “Path to Nowhere” is Beutler’s version of art photography through natural means. An inhospitable blue-scaled photograph where a bleached footbridge ethereally meanders into nowhere through the heart of nothing, the composition is dramatically stark. It’s a fully realized ecological commentary where the ominous charred remains of white tree stumps desolately point to the sky as their broken limbs lay helter-skelter about an ominous fog.

Leave it to the quirky “Town and country” section of “My Window to the World” to find Beutler at his most laid-back. As he says in his gallery card to this eleven-part section of his exhibit, it’s this sort of art that compels him to work — and, ironically, not work.

Beutler says the unifying factor of these photos is the serendipitous “nature” of their occasion: “In each instance, I found myself in a situation where I felt compelled to take the picture.” Yet he then adds, “I don’t usually carry a camera except when traveling and even when I do, I may not be motivated by a photo op for days.”

Which is all to say: The image must find him as much as he finds the image.

Not only is Beutler’s honesty refreshing, but it also explains the crisp vitality of these photos. The picturesque “Burano Canal” (taken at a small island north of Venice where all the houses must be painted so that residents can easily find home from a nearby lagoon) is riotous painterly color. The bright hues of these houses delightfully clash with each other, creating a thoroughly agreeable disharmony.

But of these works, perhaps the most telling of Beutler’s style and taste is a handsome, moody photograph entitled “Two Hats.” This atmospheric tour de force features two high-crowned, wide-brimmed cowboy hats tossed together in front of a lit desk lamp on a table in a dark room. Casual surely meets class—even as Beutler cleverly crafts a compositional recession that makes the photograph an unusual masterwork.

“My Window to the World: A Photographic Exhibition by Frederick J. Beutler” continues through November 29 at the main branch of the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 South Fifth Avenue. Exhibit hours are 10 a.m. to 9 a.m., Monday; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday-Friday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m., Sunday. For information, call 734-327-4200.

John Carlos Cantú is a free-lance writer who reviews art for AnnArbor.com.