Who Is Frans Lanting's Photography?

Frans Lanting is a Dutch born nature photographer who is the photographer in residence at National Geographic magazine who has completed over 13,000 prints in his over forty years of field work that show his commitment to protecting and educating the world about the wonderous creatures and places that are beyond our imaginations (Dems). Born in a small village in the Netherlands, Lanting watched his hometown be transformed from a sanctuary for nature and beauty to a center of petrochemical industry, and this area was forever ruined by the petroleum production. Hans says this about this experience,” I’ve seen first hand how societies overwhelm organic landscapes.”(pdngallery) Inspired to prevent this from happening elsewhere, Lanting went
college in Santa Cruz, California to be an economist and planned to go into the area of environmental planning because he felt that this would allow him to prevent other area from becoming like his home. However, this dream did not come to fruition as Lanting began to pursue a new interest:photography, specifically natural photography(pdngallery).
Surrounded by many prominent photographer in Santa Cruz, Lanting began his first expedition to the Congo Basin in 1999 and during his three year stay there, he completed his first project where he photographed wondrous animals such as elephants and giraffes as well as the native tribes who, until this point, had never been photographed.(Lanting). Lanting’s first expedition was such as success that National Geographic gave him an entire issue as the century turned. This accomplishment had given Lanting a taste of fame but that was not the goal of his project. (Dems). He wanted to spread the message that these people and animals needed protection from the encroachment of urbanization(Lanting). Lanting also wanted to introduce the world to new people, places and creatures as they had not been seen before (Dems). Since then, Lanting has gone one other expeditions to Antarctica, Hawaii, Nabania, and locations across the globe (Lanting).
Lanting was unique, even for a natural photographer. At the time, most nature photographers stalked their subject from a distance and used to long range lense to capture their image without the creature knowing.(Dems) Lanting, however, did not sneak up on his subjects but rather took the time to befriend each creature so that they would be comfortable with him photographing them,allowing him to capture better quality images of creatures due to the being closer and not having to worry about the animals running away or being frightened by the camera(Lanting).
Lanting’s photographic style is very dependant on the subject, showing that the amount of thought and effort ha he puts into every shot is meaningful and reflects his message that all life is beautiful and incredible.
In his print Parson Chameleon, Lanting relies on color as well as pattern to convey an image of peaceful wonder as the chameleon’s tail is shown to create a swirling pattern involving black bands on a predominantly bright green creature, creating a stark contrast that draw the viewer's eyes to the tail. In a separate work entitled Tuatara, Sphenodon guntheri, Lanting focuses on the similarity of texture between the rock and the Tuatara as well as color similarities between the mineral deposits on the rock and scale color on the animal, bringing a feeling of cohesion and unity to the print. Lanting purpose for this print is to show interconnectedness among all creatures, places and things, which relates to his overarching goal for photography, that all life is sacred. Lastly, Lanting is a master of using motion in photography that gives live to the print by use of blurring and fading lines or using a still body of water, as he did in Elephants 4, a work that he completed on his expedition to Nabina. The still body of water reflects the elephants, creating a mirror image if the herd of elephants drinking as the moon begins to rise. The timing of this photograph is wonderful and by taking the photograph at dusk as opposed to taking it at dawn, a more purple hue is
seen, blending well with the grey color of the elephant’s skin. In conclusion, Lanting applies a complementary system to each subject in order to create a work that exemplifies each animal's unique characteristics.