 |
|
|
The Adventures of Frans
By Christa Martin
Now that his new Westside gallery has become a hotspot, revered local photographer Frans Lanting sets his eye on the bigger picture
Chris Eckstrom just finished a kickboxing class at a little gym in Santa Cruz. She´s wearing workout clothes and her hair is a bit frazzled, but she´s still sporting her trademark grin and effervescent personality. It´s what makes her so affable. Today she blends in, unnoticed, with all the other women at the gym. But away from the treadmills and weight room Eckstrom has a more than noticeable presence, a multi-faceted job considered enviable by many: co-owner of the new Frans Lanting Gallery on the Westside of Santa Cruz; writer and editor for exotic photo essay books she collaborates on with her husband (Lanting), including a new book project in-progress for National Geographic; and an adventurer who travels the world with her famous photographer husband.
But don´t think that her life is something glamorous. Sure, jetting around the world doesn´t sound so bad, but sitting in a pit blind dug into a river bank in Peru, as her husband is hoisted high above in a scaffold taking pictures of macaws, while natives raid their camp for food … not so glamorous. Meanwhile, swarms of stinging wasps and ants create an even riskier scenario. What is glamorous, however, is the stunning picture Lanting captured during that trip. Patrons of the gallery will probably agree that the remarkable photo was worth the adventurous trip. It´s a sprawling picture featuring a handful of colorful macaws flying in the sky, set against a light coffee-colored backdrop.
This trip was one of the more daunting excursions the couple has experienced over the years, documenting wildlife and landscapes for National Geographic and various independent projects. They´ve been going at it together since 1990 and before that they worked as independent adventurers, she as a staff writer for National Geographic and he as a freelance photographer for the magazine.
The opening of the Frans Lanting Gallery is yet another collaborative project from this creative pair who met in a cafeteria at the magazine headquarters in Washington, D.C. They had been familiar with each other´s work over time, but had never been acquainted. One brief introduction and both were smitten. This led to a love story, which eventually landed them together in Santa Cruz in 1990. Later in 1998 they got married. They´ve collaborated on many projects and the Frans Lanting Gallery is one of their newest endeavors, an art gallery that´s planning to stay put, when others have come and gone. It´s slightly hidden from major Mission Street traffic, tucked away in the same general area as Kelly´s Bakery, with a quirky back entrance that takes visitors right into the wildlife of Africa, the ice of Antarctica and the majestic trees of Big Sur. A multitude of enlarged photographs hang on the walls, creating a myriad of stunning images: Impalas, lions, lionesses, the macaws and more. In an adjacent room are calendars, books and other gift items, all for sale, as are the pictures in the main gallery. Prices for the winners of the show—the stuff in the gallery—range from around $500 to $1,000. Each tells a story, and if you can get Lanting talking, he will tell the stories behind the pictures.
The photographic tale that brings him the most joy? “I think maybe that´s the Big Sur scene,” says Lanting, with just a trace of his accent; he hails originally from Holland. “It has such a grandiose view.” The funniest? “The emperor penguin family,” he says, pointing to a charming photo of a mom and dad penguin and their little one. “In [some] people it has such an immediate connection … with an expression of a nuclear family.” It makes him smile, despite the freezing memories of spending a month there in Antarctica. This couple has brought National Geographic to Santa Cruz.
“We hope to be more than just a gallery,” Eckstrom says. “Frans has taught workshops and would like to start that up again.” Additionally, they hope to do presentations and field sessions.
So far, in the few weeks that the gallery has been open, they´ve seen about 30 people a day walk through the doors and recently an elementary school class took a field trip there.
Being that the couple travels so much, they´ve hired four staffers to run the gallery, which will be necessary considering that Lanting just received two new assignments from National Geographic: to capture on film the Colorado Plateau of the Southwest, and the volcanoes in Hawaii. In addition to those projects, Lanting joins his wife in a collaborative book project for National Geographic. It´s a book about the personal view of the evolution of life, from the theory of the big bang until now. (A longer story for another time.)
Their work, their love and their life stories have all been a process of evolution. Both started out where many young writers and photographers begin: pounding the pavement, paying dues, knocking on doors and eventually landing an assignment with a big-named publication. For Lanting, he got his start back in the late 1970s to do research at the university. He purchased a camera and “became seduced by the allure of the West Coast and the beauty of it,” he says. Lanting started clicking away, teaching himself techniques that would one day, in his late 20s, enable him to walk into the office of a photo editor at National Geographic.
“It´s the holy grail for every photographer,” Lanting says. “It´s very difficult to gain entry there. You have to have some accomplishments under your belt otherwise it´s impossible to gain the attention of the editors there. I worked myself up by assignments at Life magazine and developed a rapport with the editors there. … My first meeting with the director of photography [at National Geographic] … he was known to be really short and stern in his dealings with photographers. He had a sign on his door that said, ‘Please wipe your knees before entering.´ It was done in jest by his secretary. But he was actually a really nice guy. [If] he had the idea that you could do something he would support you no matter what.”
And he supported Lanting and sent him on his first National Geographic job, an assignment that would have amateur photogs drooling: A six-month stint in Madagascar documenting the natural history and environmental issues.
“Madagascar isn´t a place where you start going to work,” he says. “It´s an almost impenetrable culture. You need to understand the local customs and work with the local assistants who speak the language. … The same thing applies in forests. It takes a long time to track down an animal that nobody´s seen before, that people only know of through heresay or a scientist saw three months ago.”
After the first trip to Madagascar the magazine sent him back on another assignment, this time covering lemurs, which led to many more assignments and an impressive career.
“[Animals] are ambassadors for whole ecosystems,” Lanting says. “I think many people, when they come here (to the gallery) and look at an image of a macaw or an impala or an elephant, these are ways to draw people into the landscapes and ecosystems. They have their own stories to tell.”
The Frans Lanting Gallery is at 207 McPherson St., Suite D, Santa Cruz. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., daily during the holiday season. For more information, call 429-1331 or visit www.lanting.com.
Feature by Christa Martin from Good Times, July 1, 2004
For more, check:
|
|
|
