Stephan Vanfleteren b. 1969

Overview

Stephan Vanfleteren is a Belgian photographer whose practice spans photojournalism, documentary photography, portraiture, landscape, still life and the nude. Beginning his career as a press photographer, he developed a distinctive visual language through long-term projects exploring people, places and histories.

 

Known for his use of black and white, strong contrasts and sharply defined detail, Vanfleteren combines formal precision with a deeply engaged relationship to his subjects. Over time, his practice has expanded from documentary series and extended reportages to more introspective studio work. Recent projects, including Nature Morte and Transcripts of a Sea, have also marked a growing exploration of colour, timelessness and classical photographic genres.

 

In 2025, the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent presented Stephan Vanfleteren’s  exhibition Transcripts of a Sea. With this exhibition, the photographer shares for the  first time the fascination that has drawn him to the sea – or rather, into the sea – in  recent years. Vanfleteren takes us on a journey through time. The photographs serve  as inspiring motifs for viewing the development of marine painting in a new light, or  for exploring how his perspective resonates with that of painters from the  seventeenth to the twentieth century. Transcripts of a Sea attracted more than  135,000 visitors. Transcripts of a Sea is currently on an international tour and will be 

exhibited at the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam from 8 October 2026 until  

 

For his last exhibition Pentimenti – Stephan Vanfleteren amongst the masters from  April until August 2026, Vanfleteren has been commissioned by the Mauritshuis in  The Hague to create new work. Sixteen photographs, inspired by 17th-century  paintings from the museum’s collection, were displayed amongst the masterpieces.

Biography
Stephan Vanfleteren
Education

Stephan Vanfleteren studied Photography at the Saint-Luc Institute in Brussels from 1988 to 1992. In 1993, he travelled to New York, where he focused primarily on street photography, an experience that marked the beginning of his professional career.

 

Solo Exhibitions (selected)
  • Transcripts of a Sea, National Maritime Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2026–2027
  • Pentimenti – Stephan Vanfleteren Amongst the Masters, Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2026
  • Transcripts of a Sea, Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, Ghent, Belgium, 2025–2026
  • Atelier, Hangar Art Center, Brussels, Belgium, 2024
  • Portraits of Fishermen, NAVIGO Museum, Oostduinkerke, Belgium, 2024–2026
  • Nature Morte – Still Life, Galerie Rabouan Moussion, Paris, France, 2023–2024
  • Catching Light, Freezing Time, Sotheby’s, Brussels, Belgium, 2022
  • Present, FOMU, Antwerp, Belgium, 2019–2020
  • Onuitgesproken, Museum Dr. Guislain, Ghent, Belgium, 2019–2020
 
Group Exhibitions (selected)
  • Léon Spilliaert, Native Gallery, Brussels, 2026
  • Compassion – Misericordia, MAS, Antwerp, 2025
  • Family of Migrants, Fenix, Rotterdam, 2025
  • Unique, Hangar Art Center, Brussels, 2024
  • 20 ans, des mers et des océans, Box Galerie, Brussels, 2024
  • Paris Photo, Galerie Fifty One, Paris, 2023
  • Agents of Concern – Images and Empathy II, CC Hasselt, Hasselt, Belgium, 2023–2024

 

His numerous photographic distinctions include World Press Photo Awards in 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2013. He received the Henri Nannen Prize in 2011 and again in 2019, the National Portrait Prize of the Netherlands in 2012, the five-year Culture Prize of the Province of West Flanders in 2012, the Lead Award for Portrait Photography of the Year in 2010, the Louis Paul Boon Award in 2009 and the Nikon Press Photo Award in 2007.

He also received European Fuji Awards in 1998 and 2001.

 

Awards

His numerous photographic distinctions include World Press Photo Awards in 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2013. He received the Henri Nannen Prize in 2011 and again in 2019, the National Portrait Prize of the Netherlands in 2012, the five-year Culture Prize of the Province of West Flanders in 2012, the Lead Award for Portrait Photography of the Year in 2010, the Louis Paul Boon Award in 2009 and the Nikon Press Photo Award in 2007.

He also received the European Fuji Awards in 1998 and 2001.

 

Publications
  • Pentimenti – Dialogue Between a Photographer and a Museum Director, Mauritshuis, 2026
  • Transcripts of a Sea, Hannibal Books, 2025
  • Atelier, Hannibal Books, 2023
  • Collegium Vocale Gent, Hannibal Books, 2021
  • Dagboek van een fotograaf, Coronawandelingen, De Bezige Bij, 2020
  • PRESENT, Hannibal Books, 2019
  • SURF TRIBE, Hannibal Books, 2018
Publications
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