GHENT.- In 2020, photographer Stephan Vanfleteren embarked on a challenging project that culminates in the exhibition Stephan Vanffeteren. Transcripts of a Sea at the MSK Ghent, during autumn and winter 2025. The exhibition is the conclusion of a long quest, not only into the depths of a body of water, but also into the essence of artistry - Vanfleteren's answer to what complete artistic freedom can mean.

The sea as an unstoppable obsession

The multiple meanings of Transcripts of a Sea are primarily related to the theme of the sea, which, in recent years, has become an almost unmanageable obsession for Stephan Vanfleteren.

The photographer shows the sea in its most surprising guises, from smooth water surface and ephemeral foggy images to threatening tempests and an all-consuming stormy or treacherously calm sea. His visual transcriptions are highly personal in nature because they are the result of a specific skill that he only came to accept after months at sea, and subsequently learned to embrace as a blessing.

Initially wanting to capture the sea as faithfully as possible, he gradually realised that even photography cannot reproduce it truthfully. Over the years, chance, failure and experimentation gained in importance. Unexpected irregularities of his camera were no longer condemned, but embraced. The absolute freedom of a confused autofocus, incorrect exposure or unintended framing became a blessing. Wonderful images were created by motion blur, miscalculations in focal length and unexpected colour tinges. And he simply left the scratches, condensation, water droplets and salt stains in or on the camera's protective lens, trusting in the unexpected.

By abandoning the classic dogmas of photography, he discovered a highly personal way of capturing 'his' sea, unlimited in image, time and space. The indefinite article 'a' in the subtitle Transcripts of a Sea alludes to the meaningful nuance that 'his' sea is not 'everyone's' sea, whereby not only the specific location of the event counts, but his approach and photographic gaze as a sea guide prevail.

Dialogue with Art History

Transcripts of a Sea also alludes to the way in which the sea gets under the skin of artists. It is precisely for this reason that the photographer chose the MSK Ghent, because for him the dialogue between his photographs and visual art was paramount. Only those artists with whom Vanfleteren feels a strong affinity were considered, artists who – like the photographer himself – have developed an authentic voice, their own 'transcripts', only after a long process of years of research and observation. Artists such as Louis Artan, Jean Brusselmans, Gustave Courbet, Thierry De Cordier, Marlene Dumas, James Ensor, Théodore Géricault, Victor Hugo, Emil Nolde, Léon Spilliaert, August Strindberg and Jan Toorop, to name but a few, and their response to the persistent, compelling call of the sea: the repetitiveness of the eternal swell, the foaming waves, uncontrollable sand currents, a swelling or receding storm, jagged sea mountains, an all- consuming tide, the uncanny night.

The Logbook as an Anchor

Finally, Transcripts of a Sea also refers to the logbooks that Stephan Vanfleteren kept during the 366 days he spent at sea. These notes contain all kinds of information, such as date, location, wind direction, wind strength, wave height, tide, moon phase, focal length... but also inspirations, musings, insights and sketches of the places where he took photographs. After a few years, Vanfleteren realised that his desire to decode and predict the sea was doomed to failure. Nevertheless, he continued to record his transcriptions. They are as much his anchor in the capricious and unstable sea as they are a testimony to an overambitious project in which his fire for the water simply refused to be extinguished.

The Tide Will Bring You Home

In the margins of the exhibition, Basile Rabaey created the short film The Tide Will Bring You Home. This poetic portrait allows us to share in Vanfleteren's hesitations, love and obsession with the moving water; wading, floating, toiling, engulfed by his inseparable companions at the surf: danger, solitude, melancholy, gloom and euphoria.