Looking at Lehigh through Christa Neu’s lens

It was a windy day in early October when Christa Neu was tasked with capturing fall at Lehigh through the lens of her camera. It was Pacing Break. The campus was dead. She looked at her desolate surroundings, hearing the phantom voice of her disappointed boss in her head.

She stood on the University Center front lawn and sized up the situation. There was no one in sight, let alone a subject suitable for publishing in an admissions brochure.

The idea came to her when she noticed a pile of leaves under a tree near Packard lab. She ran to the trunk of her car, pulled out three cloth shopping bags and began separating the leaves by color. One yellow bag, one red, one orange.

She carefully laid the leaves out on the front lawn, forming the letters LU. She waited for the light to change, fought off a nosy squirrel and made sure her L was fanned out to account for the wide angle lens. Finally, she got the shot.

Making something out of nothing is what Neu does best. As the photographer for the Lehigh University Office of Communications and Public Affairs, she works closely with academic departments and campus organizations to illustrate the Lehigh story. Many of the photos she takes are used in admissions material sent out to prospective students or used by advancement for funding opportunities. A large part of Neu’s job is giving life to scenes that are important but not necessarily visually interesting.

“My goal is to try to give people a sense of what it feels like to be at Lehigh,” Neu said. “What’s challenging is trying to visualize the act of research, or the process of problem solving, without using something cheesy like a beaker as a prop.”

This kind of thinking has been instilled in Neu since the beginning of her career. Coming from the Syracuse University S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Neu’s first job was a photo assistant at T.V. Guide Magazine in New York City. Even as the “low man on the totem pole,” whose main job was setting up photoshoots, her boss taught her that the key to a good photo is to look at the bigger picture.

After four years and a particularly bad day, the frustration of working with high-maintenance celebrities led Neu to take a photo editor position at Organic Gardening Magazine.

“When I went in for my interview, I told them, ‘I’m interested here because carrots don’t have publicists,’” Neu said. “It was two entirely different worlds, but I loved both of them.”

In contrast to the whirlwind of metropolitan life, Neu adapted to serene mornings on the farm. She built up her still life portfolio by photographing fruits and vegetables at the break of dawn and eventually became the photo director.

Neu had no plans of going anywhere until a friend told her about a job opening at Lehigh in November 2011. She decided it was time for a new experience. All of her photos were extreme close-ups of tomatoes and sunflowers. She needed a change.

Two weeks later, Neu was running across campus with her camera and a tension headache.

“I freaked out the first three months I was here,” Neu said. “I came from these completely meditative garden shoots, clipping dead leaves off plants. My first week was Spirit Week, and I’m chasing after the Marching 97 playing in the classrooms. It was a culture shock.”

But as a self-proclaimed chatterbox, Neu quickly adapted to photographing human subjects. Her ability to get people to relax by acting silly and making them laugh is what ultimately results in her greatest photos.

“She talks to everyone like they’re an old friend,” said Stephanie Veto, a videographer at Lehigh who works with Neu. “Not everyone likes getting their picture taken, but Christa gets people to open up and feel comfortable.”

Neu has a hard time turning down any opportunity, even if her schedule is full. Between academic departments, awards ceremonies and events on campus, she finds herself wishing for just a few more hours in the day.

“The thing about Christa is that everyone knows her and respects her work, and they always wants something from her,” said Tim Hyland, the director of editorial services at Lehigh. “People on campus call and request her for photos, she has a million responsibilities, but she is just unflappable.”

No matter how busy she gets, Neu gets excited at every new assignment she works on. An ongoing project that has gained traction has been her Tumblr page, “Scenes from South Mountain.” She sees the page as a way of chronicling the events at Lehigh for people who aren’t able to visit the campus.

It’s not just work for Neu. Photography is her passion. Her friends have to remind her that she’s off the clock, as she can never put her camera down. Ironically, she hates having her own photo taken.

“Unless it’s an iPhone selfie,” she said. “Then I have total control.”