The “Coup de Coeur” of our correspondent for Belgium and the Netherlands: John Devos.
Water connects us, water separates us. In all countries along the North Sea, water is both a border and a route.
Those who live on the edge of the sea, as Stephan Vanfleteren, usually have a dual relationship with water. It is a playground, from an early age. An ideal place for walking. Communities that live by the sea build only half cities. The sea is familiar, a source of food and income.
On the other hand, every year children get into trouble at sea. The wind blows harder there, destroying houses and hurting people. Every so often, the coast and the plains are flooded. The unpredictable water drowns sailors and sinks ships. The sea is a threat, a source of danger.
Stephan Vanfleteren (1969) has built an entire career as a photographer – a career characterised by the slow construction of an oeuvre. First documentary photography, on location, immersive as a “fly on the wall” like Anders Petersen, then reportage images for a newspaper. A change in policy in the press, and he chooses his own path: his own projects, large and small, about fishermen, cyclists, surfers. Larger exhibitions Belgicum (2007), Portraits (2009), his own publishing house, a loyal audience. Images always with a very recognisable style. The final piece in this series was the exhibition Present (2019), which was extended due to COVID-19. It ultimately became the most successful photography exhibition ever in Belgium, with nearly 150,000 visitors.
The subsequent exhibition and the book of the same name, Atelier (2023), showed us the effect of Corona. Stephan Vanfleteren takes on the challenge of space (unchangeable) and light (unpredictable and elusive). The gaze turns inward, both literally (limited to the studio) and figuratively. A certain melancholy, bordering on sadness, was sometimes characteristic of him, but now it predominates. In these portraits, the photographer shows not only the beauty of the rugged (sur)face, but also emphasises emotions, existence, fleetingness (through movement) and mortality.
Vanfleteren explains us in “Atelier” how important light is, strolling as he puts it between science and spirituality, between Einstein and Soubirou. He muses on how long it takes for light to reach us, on the relationship between light and time, on time and seasons.
Parallel to the “Atelier” project, Vanfleteren kept returning to the sea – not to promenade, but to create images, day and night, wearing a thick suit, equipped with a lifeline and a helmet He alternates between his studio and the coast, so much that he begins to refer to “the sea as a studio”.
Images of the sea, according to Hockney, can only be created by a painter, not by a camera. Stephan Vanfleteren couldn’t care less about Hockney’s advice; he does it with a camera anyway. With a camera in a waterproof case, moreover, without being able to focus, with only a fleeting preview of the moment through the photographer’s eyes. It almost seems like analogue photography again: you take pictures, but you only know at the end of the process whether the images are successful. Surrendering to the light, to the elements, to the forces of nature. He must have taken masses of pictures; the list of shot numbers starts somewhere below #400 and ends in the order of #323000. Countless images, endless comparisons and ultimately selection.
And so the sea became the counterpart to his studio on days when unrest struck. For five years, for countless images.
Countless recording dates: these too are meticulously printed in the book, with all the details. Starting on 8 August 2020, ending in May 2025, an estimated total of 340 days/nights. Lying in the water for a year – that counts as commitment. And every note, with specifications of wind direction, tide, sea conditions, obstacles. The small notes bring the whole thing to life: the transmigrants he meets, travelling companions, the seals, customs and the police, the painkillers he took. Just like in Atelier, the notes represent the need to grasp and control the uncontrollable. They are complex parameters to comprehend the incomprehensible. What else can you expect from a man who names his dog Kosmos?
And just as many locations: Transcripts is the product of trips between Domburg and Le Touquet, a distance of 220 kilometres along the tide line. But not every location provides the desired images: light from the urbanised world, from lighthouses, buoys or shipping is not desirable. Only the jet black of the sea, the sky, the light that bubbles up from the sea.
The project was not without risk either: the emergency services had to intervene several times – just in time, and on one occasion a travelling companion got into serious trouble. Because the sea he shows is wild and untameable, and certainly no friendlier to a photographer and his surroundings. The images capture only a few metres at a time, a fragment, an impression of reality.
Stephan Vanfleteren in a museum – a photographer, no less. And alive and well, who would have thought, it is not yet evident in Belgium. You could even hear it echoing a little among the people at the institution. Johan De Smet (co-curator) and Manfred Sellink (director of the KMSK) gave their full support and guaranteed the finale of the exhibition: the magnificent “classical” works of art that were selected to act as a counterbalance in the exhibition. A Thierry De Cordier (1954), Emil Nolde (1867-1956), Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946), James Ensor (1860-1949), but also Jan Porcellis (c. 1583/84-1632) and Théodore Géricault (1791-1824). Manfred Sellink, the director of the institution, had to announce his departure for health reasons at the opening. The eminent art historian and expert on 16th and 17th century art will certainly remain active, but he is regretfully stepping down from the management of the institution.
The way he works, his obsession with constantly confronting the elements, even at the risk of his life, is more than dedication. It borders on obsession, addiction, everyday madness. He recognises this too, because he already noted talking an earlier project that “Freedom requires risk, and a little madness”. But it has been enough: at the end of his essay accompanying the book, he writes:
‘I am not staying.
I am walking away, but not to the high-water mark.
I am tired of you.
The fire for the water may be extinguished.
I hope you succeed to control the urge, it’s a tremendous exhibition and book, but we are also eager to discover your new projects.
When you go outside, don’t forget to watch the impressive video by Basile Rabaey (1997) The Tide Will Bring You Home, 2025. This “making of” immerses you in the creative process and is an essential addition to the exhibition.
ATELIER
As I also mention the publication Atelier in my text, you also find information on how to order the book, which is a true companion to Transcripts.
Atelier is available in English, French or Dutch at a price of €69.95. Free delivery in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Signed copies are available from the publisher at https://hannibalbooks.be/
- 25 x 18.4 cm
- 448 pages and over 232 images
- Hardcover
- Four-colour printing
- ISBN 978 94 6466 655 7
TRANSCRIPTS OF A SEA – catalogue – an edition of MSK Gent
The exhibition is accompanied by no less than two publications. First of all an accessible catalogue featuring some of Stephan Vanfleteren’s images and the artworks in the exhibition that mirror his work. This publication also contains a series of essays that add an extra dimension to the exhibition: a philosophical reflection, a second with an ecological and scientific approach, a literary poetic approach and finally a contribution on the developments in the marine genre in the visual arts.
With works of art by Stephan Vanfleteren, Louis Artan, Jean Brusselmans, Hendrik Chabot, Gustave Courbet, Thierry De Cordier (2 works of art), Edgar Degas, Marlene Dumas, James Ensor, Théodore Géricault, Paul Huet, Victor Hugo, Floris Jespers, Charles Lacoste, Emil Nolde (2 works of art), Constant Permeke, Jan Porcellis, Léon Spilliaert (2 artworks), August Strindberg, Jan Toorop, Rinus Van de Velde, Andries van Eertvelt, Isidoor Verheyden
With texts by Johan De Smet, Alicja Gescinska, Colin Janssen, Lisette Lombé, Jan Mees, Manfred Sellink, David Van Reybrouck, Stephan Vanfleteren
€25, to be ordered by the MSK
- ONLY AVAILABLE IN DUTCH, and only at the museum bookshop or by order through ([email protected]).
- 7 x 29 cm
- 136 pages & Contains 76 images (51 images by Stephan Vanfleteren & 25 by the other 22 artists)
- Softcover
- ISBN 978-94-6494-372-6
TRANSCRIPTS OF A SEA – art book – edition of Hannibal Books
And then, as a second publication, an impressive art book.
The cover is based on the notebooks he uses trip after trip to entrust his notes to. When you pick up the book, you think you are holding an oversized Leuchtturm or Moleskine, with a hard cover, rounded corners, dog-eared, water-stained, faded… and somewhere a date, a date that Stephan Vanfleteren will never forget. The cover is like a palimpsest, with layers shining through.
The book contains 136 photographs by Stephan Vanfleteren, showing the sea in all its colours and overwhelming power. Highly recommended for all lovers of the sea…
Transcripts of a Sea is available in English, French or Dutch – €79.95 Free shipping to Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Signed copies available through the editor at https://hannibalbooks.be/
Already repeatedly voted one of the best photo books of 2026, it is truly a must-have.
- 7 x 25.5 cm
- 292 pages
- Hardcover with rounded corners
- Bichromie and quadrichromie
- ISBN 978 94 9341 619 2
MSK Ghent – Museum of Fine Arts
Transcripts of a sea – till 04 01
Mo – Fr: 9:30 – 17:30
Sat – Sun: 10:00 – 18:00
Closed: monday, 25/12, 26/12, 01/01, 02/01
F. Scribedreef 1
9000 Gent
https://www.mskgent.be/
John Devos
Johndevos.photo AD gmail.com
