Born in 1969 in Kortrijk, Belgium, Stephan Vanfleteren is known to the general public for his powerful black and white portraits.
He began as a war photographer, in the heart of the 90s, an overwhelming and stimulating experience that sharpened his gaze on the world. He then decides to devote himself to photographing cities, streets and the invisible. These fainting beings in the mass that no one is looking at.
Through his portraits, Stephan Vanfleteren penetrates human matter, to emerge from the shadows and bring ordinary people into existence.
Getting closer to the subjects, he reveals their souls and reveals their stories to the light.
Stephan Vanfleteren has won numerous awards including the World Press Photo Award four times. He has exhibited in major museums in Europe and Japan. This year he has just completed a retrospective at the Fomu in Antwerp.
He has also photographed a large number of celebrities and published his portraits in the press: Le Monde (Fr) Paris Match (Fr), De Standaard {B), De Volkskrant (Nl) and several other international editions.
“Surf Tribe” by photographer Stephan Vanfleteren is a stroll along the shores of surfing through the faces that embody and celebrate it. Legends and anonymous, young and old, all live in their flesh the brawl of the ocean surge.
Fixed portraits, majestic, in black and white, where each gaze carries the waves confronted and long waits, where happiness glides over burnt skin, where scars express risks and breathe salt.
The wind blows on these apparently static faces from which radiates a humble serenity. But everything is moving.
Stephan Vanfleteren crowns the surf and never shows waves and sands. However, everywhere the ocean can be guessed, the blue is outlined, the foam is emerging.
The strength of the portraits lies in this balance between danger and calm, between the call of the waves and the coast.
Sophie Geoffrion, practicing philosopher.