Vision and light guiding principles of career

• Published date: 17 June 2021
• Publication title: Otago Daily Times (New Zealand)

By profession an optometrist, he was pre-eminent not just locally, but nationally and even internationally, not only for his landscape photography, but also as a mentor, judge, innovator and leader, recognised with fellowships from the premier photographic societies of Great Britain and the United States, as well as New Zealand.

His journey, practice and philosophy are wonderfully summed up in his 2006 book Chasing the Southern Light, a classic text of New Zealand photography.

Norman Matheson Beaumont was born in Dunedin on December 3, 1926.

His father, Llewellyn Beaumont, a war veteran who had seen action at Gallipoli and been wounded in France, was a wool classer who became head of David Reid and Co’s wool department; his mother was Clare Matheson, a teacher and musician with a fine singing voice. Matheson was their only child, though plentifully supplied with cousins on both sides.

In 1935, the family moved from Dalmore to St Clair, where he was to live for the next 85 or so years, attending St Clair and Macandrew Intermediate schools then King’s High School.

An aunt suggested optometry as a suitable career and he began his training with the Fairmaid Optical Company. Eight years later, he emerged with the State Diploma in Optics, enabling him in 1955 to buy his own practice in King Edward Street, South Dunedin. Here he worked alone until 1989, when he was joined by a young English optometrist, Mark Bridgemount, before retiring in 2001.

Optometry was an inspired choice. Not only did he enjoy the personal contact with clients but it complemented perfectly his developing interest in photography, both concerned with vision and light, and more practically with lenses. Almost as important, it made him open to new technology; in 1979 he bought his first computer, for which he developed dedicated optometry software.

His personal life was not neglected. In 1957 he married Ruth Le Pine, their paths having first crossed while she was working for the professional portrait photographer, Franz Barta. A year later, their only child Louise was born. It was a long and happy marriage until dementia overtook Ruth shortly before her death in 2013.

Matheson’s interest in photography began at school and was encouraged by the Erwins next door, both senior members of the Dunedin Photographic Society. He had bought his first camera in 1939, but with film in short supply, it was only after the war that he was able to photograph seriously with an Argus C3 that took 35mm film.

His...