Robert Fehre: A Hunt for Beauty
Robert Fehre, Maui Palms
Written by Trip Avis
Robert Fehre likens his photography to a hunt, except instead of pursuing wild game, Fehre seeks out wild instances of visual enchantment: “There is beauty to be found in all places all over the world, and this “hunt” to find the unexpected beauty in everyday locations and places drives me to make more pictures and explore every day.” His photographs explode with colorful verve; his camera is transformative, creating a heightened, idealized world. The colors are almost edible: blue skies over Maui are like cotton candy ice cream, and earthen island mud becomes an orange sherbert. Fehre is a multi-hyphenate artist; his meditative steel sculpture, Bhadrasana (The Gracious Pose), was selected and commissioned by the City of West Palm Beach to be placed beside the Norton Museum of Art. However, his roots lie in photography: “[it is] is my foundational medium, an artistic expression I always come back to and always have a passion for. Since I was in my teenage years, I remember using a camera to document and have fun with—looking back, this was a creative outlet that I always loved.”
Robert Fehre, A1A 2 Palm Beach, FL
Florida, a muse for Fehre, is beautifully brought to life in his work; he expertly captures the Sunshine State’s balmy glow, painting it as a hi-res neon dreamland. “Growing up in New Jersey and living in South Florida for most of my life, I was always drawn to the high saturation and sunny weather Florida offers, compared to the more muted landscape Jersey offers in the winter months.” His image entitled A1A 2 Palm Beach, FL, embodies the stately opulence that defines Palm Beach. A yellow manse—a shade of gold that recalls Midas’s touch—floats atop a verdant green lawn. It resembles Frederick the Great’s pleasure palace, Sanssouci, neatly planted beneath an azure South Florida sky. There is a prim uniformity to it that is otherworldly; the individual blades of grass commune in a green blanket. The combination of blue, yellow, and green is soothing to the eye; it lulls you like the slow fold of crashing waves.
Robert Fehre, Spray II
While many photographers are apt to point their camera up and out, capturing the world around them, Fehre isn’t afraid to turn it downward, capturing the exciting textures of the land on which we tread. Photographs like Spray II capture the nuanced complexities of graffiti and spray-paint-related art. Splattered across a coal-black parking lot, the smattering of gray-white paint is suggestive; it is almost like a Pollock painting or the contents of a spilled milk glass. The shades undulate from wispy white shadows to thick, inky splotches. Some may see defacement but Fehre sees the beauty, unexpected, but still present. Fehre keeps his keen eye for tantalizing images handy when traveling outside his adoptive home state. Maui Puddles is a savory visual treat. The hoof marks in the rich Hawaii earth ooze with a nectarine-tinted liquid, perhaps the result of the potent volcanic soil. This is a prime example of the unexpected beauty the world dangles before our cameras; Fehre tenderly accepts.
Robert Fehre, Untitled Sarasota Florida
