OPEN STUDIOS ART TOUR
Frans Lanting Studio, 108 High Road, Santa Cruz
October 5 – 6 and October 19 – 20, 2024, 11 am to 5 pm

Our Studio will be open again to visitors as we participate in Santa Cruz County’s annual Open Studios Art Tour. This is a great opportunity to meet Frans and Chris in person and see a display of Frans Lanting’s iconic images from around the world and close to home. Limited edition fine art prints and signed copies of our books will be for sale.

Frans and Chris will speak about their work and the images on display each day at 1:00 PM.

Our Studio is located just three blocks off Highway One, on the Westside of Santa Cruz.

We look forward to seeing you.

FRANS LANTING: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF FRANK HURLEY

An exclusive preview from a new project-in-progress will be on display during Open Studios.

View work prints made with a 100-year-old camera—and see the camera itself.

Photographer Frank Hurley immortalized Ernest Shackleton’s epic Endurance expedition in Antarctica from 1914-1916 with a series of now-classic images that were made under extreme conditions.

Frans Lanting has been retracing Hurley’s footsteps since 1988. He has “crossed paths” with both Hurley and Shackleton in a number of remote locations, and once pitched a camp on sea ice in the Weddell Sea less than 50 miles from where the Endurance got trapped in pack ice and sank.

To get a better sense of what it was like to make photographs in Antarctica one hundred years ago, Frans adopted the same kind of camera Frank Hurley once used, and was even able to wear the same clothing during one of his expeditions. Frans was able to secure a century-old Kodak VPK camera that was still in working condition. The camera features only two shutter speeds, it has no light meter, the focus has to be set manually with a crude slider, and the viewfinder is only the size of a thumbnail. Images are exposed on modern 120 roll film, which can be used by applying spool adapters.

Working with the VPK camera has given Frans a deep appreciation for Frank Hurley’s photographs and he continues to apply this vintage camera to create new images that blend old technology with new ideas.