Frédéric Sabalette, landscape photographer based in Switzerland
As IT Service Management Lead, Frédéric is more used to thrive in a technology, service and process-oriented environment, with a sense of commitment and distinctiveness at the heart of his daily work.
With a yearly average of around 1’000km of mountain hike and 25’000m elevation gain in recent years, often in adverse conditions, carrying a heavy backpack day and night, he puts these values into practice in his passion outside of work: mountain photography.
While he shows enthusiasm for photography for a long time, Frédéric started to refocus and elevate his self-taught photographic work in 2019, when he naturally started to photograph the mountains around him as a tribute to his country of adoption, especially at high altitude above 2’000m.
He describes his style as “capturing a natural dreamlike representation of wilderness landscapes shaped by light and atmospheres”, mainly focusing on high mountain terrain in his surroundings in Wallis.
Why photography?
Quoting Henri Cartier-Bresson, “making a photograph means putting head, eye and heart in the same line of sight”.
On top of being a valuable personal development tool, he considers photography a great stress-relief asset as it helps him slow down, connect to the beauty of nature with all the senses open, observe the landscapes’ changing face across the seasons and light conditions, contemplate its details, hues and contrasts; in brief, enjoy the authenticity of simple pleasures in life.
It is also a universal medium for him to express his artistic creativity, share emotions and adventures with others in a unique and inspirational perspective, bringing the viewer to discover otherworldly images of nearby locations.
Photography – which literally means “drawing with light” – keeps Frédéric busy with the eternal quest for the perfect shot, and has been the trigger for another complementary passion… the mountain!
Why mountain photography?
As the saying goes, “the mountain offers us the scenery... it's up to us to invent the story that goes with it”.
Frédéric adds: “high mountain gives me the opportunity to enter another world far from the everyday life, between glaciers and mountain lakes I love so much.
Mountain is majestic, vast and powerful, fascinating and changing, combining serenity to hostility, between light and shadow. I feel alive, soothed and in harmony there”.
It is a great way to challenge himself outside his comfort zone and push back his limits through commitment, effort, perseverance, patience, and suffering sometimes. Mountain must be earned, and so is each photo he takes. Mountain photography is a highly demanding discipline to organize hikes to remote locations, plan and prepare for weather conditions, risks, accessibility, logistics, terrain requirements, physical preparation, but also edit photos and publish them with a high-quality standard objective. But this large palette of skills is what makes it so rewarding to see the final image come to life.
Most of the time, he goes with a well-defined plan or intention, sometimes even with the final image he foresees in mind, but also leaves some room for a more instinctive photography when on location, to react quickly to the changing conditions. And above all, he always enjoys living the moment watching the sun set from the mountain top, feel the nature slowly awake around him at first light of day, visit the heart of a glacier after a long hike in the snow, or admire the natural show of a starry night sky.
If you like my photos and want one of them to decorate your living room or office, please don't hesitate to contact me!
All the photos on this website have been selected for their high quality and are available for printing on different sizes and materials, but if you're interested in getting another one from my Instagram account, this is possible too!
You can't find any photo from a particular location? Please ask me!