Over the weekend I was privileged to be able to spend the weekend with one of the world's greatest wildlife photographers - Frans Lanting from National Geographic. He was presenting a seminar at Ken Duncan's gallery at Erina on the Central Coast of NSW. I was lucky enough to be staying with Ken so after the seminar we were able to have some fascinating late night conversations assisted by some excellent West Australian Shiraz.
What an inspiration - if you are not familiar with Frans's work, do check it out - www.lanting.com
Frans presented his Life Through Time audio visual on Friday evening in two sittings of about 50 people such was the popularity of the event. He will be doing the same talks in Sydney next weekend so if you live in Sydney this is an event not to be missed.
I have been to plenty of seminars but this was easily the best one I have seen. Frans is very candid and open with his knowledge and he gives a fantastic insight into the life and trials of a National Geographic photographer. There is truly no other publisher in the world with the resources to enable people like Frans to spend the time in the field that they need to get the amazing images that they create. The BBC does similar things with it's big projects but that's for film making, not stills.
Frans describes his work as story telling "images are words and you have to make sentences to tell stories". His work follows this approach and in many cases complex stories are told in very few images but using all sorts of visual techniques to include many elements in one shot. Given that Nat Geo does not allow any form of Photoshop compositing it means that he must go to extraordinary lengths to achieve his aims. He once took a set of Frank Hurley prints all the way to South Georgia so he could find the exact spot that they had been taken on Shackleton's ill fated expedition. He then photographed the print against a background of modern tourists climbing into zodiacs with the exact same scenery and hills in the distance.
If you are in Sydney and are free next Saturday, go and see his presentation - it's seriously worth it.
Comments
I am from Brazil and have just arrived from Lanting's workshop. I definitely agre with you - it was a great experience!
Best wishes,
Marcelo