Franz Lanting is one of my photographic heroes. With his fellow National Geographic photographers, Lanting has inspired generations of people to pick up their cameras and go see the world. When I was in college every month I eagerly waited for the National Geographic on sale in the nearly bookstore (the subscribed NG was shipped by sea and took several months to arrive.) To a college kid who had never left Taiwan, the places in National Geographic were truly exotic. Through Lanting's lens I visited Botswana, Amazon, and (now not so exotic) the Islands of Hawaii. I remember there was a photo of Lanting taking pictures in Botswana. Lanting, who stood in murky water neck deep, camera raised over head, looked so determined to get the shot that nothing seemed to matter. That image had stuck with me and made Photography a symbol of adventure forever.
Years ago, I found that Lanting actually lived in Santa Cruz and had a gallery there. Ever since then, it's on my todo list to visit the gallery. The gallery is open Mon to Fri and closed on Holiday. Now that I don't have to work, I finally get time to visit it.
The gallery is on the outskirt of Santa Cruz, quite easy to find. It's not large, but spacious enough to exhibit about 20 full sized photos. I have seen most of the images in books or National Geographic. Printed large (some 48-60"), they look even more impressive. The "penguins on blue iceberg" mural looks like an abstract modern painting (the blue in the ice is hard to describe); the eye-to-eye jaguar image shines with a mythical dimension. I have sometimes wondered if 35mm photos can stand to be enlarged and if I really need a medium format. I would say seeing Lanting's work printed on such a scale really answered my own question.
When I left I bought the DVD "Creative Outdoor Photography" (seems to be from the seminars taught by Lanting and the late Galen Rowell). It will be our later topic. Stay tuned.
P.S. here is the link to the gallery:
http://www.lanting.com/gallery_location.html
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