“Old Watering Hole—Pont-en-Royans, Alps”

Sandy Schopbach’s “The Waters of France” at the Ann Arbor District Library Malletts Creek Branch Library are almost postcards from this Ann Arbor photographer’s home away from home—but they are also more than this.

Schopbach has a villa in Paris and splits her time between Ann Arbor and Europe. As her gallery statement tells us, she has spent “half her life in France, where she has worked as a translator, interpreter, tour guide and freelance journalist. When she moved to France, she became fascinated by its coastline, and many rivers connected by a system of canals.

“This exhibit,” the statement tells us, “captures the many ‘Waters of France,’ from the English Channel through the coasts of Normandy, Brittany, and the Basque country to the Loire Valley, Vercors, and Burgundy.”

Schopbach has said of her inspiration, “I have a small apartment in Montmartre, which used to belong to a lady who made masks for the opera and the theaters. It has its own little garden and a tree. It keeps me sane because it's quiet. The bustle starts at the door of the building.”

This balance between the familiar and the novel—as well as the contrast of the quiet and the bustle—marks “The Waters of France.” Each of the 41 photographs nestled in almost every available corner of the Malletts Creek Branch Library has been fashioned with a meticulous craftsmanship. Schopbach’s camera makes familiar locales fresh with a discerning eye.

France is, of course, both geographically lovely as well as historically rich. Schopbach’s unerring eye captures sites that would nearly be invisible to the average viewer. But they are readily recognizable to anyone who has had experience with the water of France.

Whether depicting a monument, byway, or waterway itself, the charm of France becomes all the more irresistible through Schopbach’s practiced eye.

What often initially looks like a familiar sight often becomes pregnant with meaning upon closer inspection.Thus Schopbach’s photos become a bit more than postcards; they are images from the heart.

Each photo has been carefully composed, and each compositional element is keenly considered and intrinsic to the work’s whole.

Take the way Schopbach has mastered the art of subordinating her imagery to her overall composition. 2009’s “Pilgrimage—Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy” features groups ambling across a sandy strip outside the rocky tidal mountain of Mont Saint Michel on France’s north coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches.

Such a walk at Mont Saint Michel can only take place at low tide, because before the 1879 causeway connecting the island to the mainland was built, to make it across to the abbey was risky — as it still is. Schopbach captures the fortification in the photograph’s background against the unaware pilgrims, making the work all the more impressive.

“Dawn at Chambord—Chambord, Loire”

In “Dawn at Chambord—Chambord, Loire” she’s chosen to capture this famed chateau diagonally at dawn to accent its famous architecture. Distinct for its blend of French medieval form fused to classical Italian proportion, the “Chateau de Chambord”—at least as seen through Schopbach’s eye—is as much a mysterious edifice as it is an essential destination. The chateau’s famed minarets, visually doubled on the chateau watery moat, have been caught at precisely the right moment, creating an almost otherworldly ambivalence.

From the coastline of Biarritz in Basque country to Claude Monet’s water lilies at Giverny and Bayeux’s handsome Millrace, Schopbach’s camera repeatedly seizes the moment. It’s therefore just that her masterwork in this display is a French landmark that simply can’t be resisted by artists and photographers.

“The Needle—Etretat, Normandy”

Her 2010 “The Needle—Etretat, Normandy” finds just the right light to go along with just the right perspective of one of France’s most revered physical landmarks. Given the popularity of the subject, Schopbach’s “Needle” is both homage and inspiration.

“Long before I ever saw Etretat, I knew ‘L’Aiguille,’ the Needle,” says Schopbach of this work. “I’d seen it in Monet’s works, painted in all weather, in all light. Here the sun was shining, revealing the strata of the rock and lending the English Channel a turquoise color it rarely has.” What she adds is a magnificent cloud break that giver her photograph a jarring splendor. Jutting prominently against a slate sky, Schopbach’s “The Needle” (teasingly half-hidden from view) captures this landmark’s grandeur in one sweeping composition.

“The Waters of France: Color Photography by Sandy Schopbach” will continue through March 15 at the Ann Arbor District Library Malletts Creek Branch, 3090 E. Eisenhower Pkwy. Exhibit hours are 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; and noon-6 p.m. Sunday. For information, call (734) 327-4200.