iHet ScheepvaartmuseumOostelijke Eilanden
Stephan Vanfleteren - Transcripts of a Sea
Five years of photographing the coastline from northern France to the southern Netherlands: Vanfleteren's sea shifts room by room from glassy calm through misty drift to storm.
More in Amsterdam
Stephan Vanfleteren didn't take these from the beach or a boat. From August 2020 he went into the surf 366 times, from Domburg in Zeeland to Le Touquet in France, often at night, and came back with about five terabytes of sea. Along the way he stopped fighting the camera: a confused autofocus, a wrong exposure and an accidental frame became, in his words, "a blessing".
You move through it room by room as the water turns from mirror-smooth to misty to full storm, with his memories and reflections alongside. Basile Rabaey's black-and-white film The Tide Will Bring You Home follows him on glassy water and through night-time waves. Amsterdam keeps the North Sea politely behind its dykes; Vanfleteren walked half a nautical mile into it.
In Ghent these photographs hung beside Turner and Courbet; in Amsterdam they come with the film and the photobook instead. A museum ticket is €20 (€8.50 for ages 5 to 17, free with a Museumkaart), open daily 10:00 to 17:00.
Editor's pick
Five years photographing the coast from northern France to the southern Netherlands, hung so the sea moves room by room from glassy calm through mist to storm. Roughly a week of Dutch weather, at walking pace.
Look for
The Tide Will Bring You Home
Look for Basile Rabaey's black-and-white film, shot over two years, following Vanfleteren on mirror-flat water, into wild night waves and through a heavy swell.
The sea, room by room
The photographs run from smooth water surfaces and drifting mist to thunderous skies and a sea that is either wrecking everything or deceptively calm.
The Transcripts of a Sea photobook
Page through the book in the exhibition: every photograph is logged with its time, place, moon phase, wind, sea state and camera.
Good for
- Going Solo
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You come for Vanfleteren's famous black-and-white portraits: there are no faces here, only sea.
With kids
Under-5s go free and ages 5 to 17 pay €8.50 for the museum ticket.
Also at Het Scheepvaartmuseum
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- Stephan Vanfleteren - Transcripts of a SeaCourtesy of Het Scheepvaartmuseum
- Hella de Jonge – Dichter bij hun zielCourtesy of Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam (Dutch Resistance Museum)
- Abracadabra: Mysteries from Houdini to Hans KlokJeroen Bont
- Recent Additions to the Collection in the Art GalleryCourtesy of Joods Museum (Jewish Museum, Jewish Cultural Quarter)
- Het ScheepvaartmuseumFernando via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- NEMO Science MuseumElekes Andor, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam (Dutch Resistance Museum)A. Bakker / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
- Joods Museum (Jewish Museum, Jewish Cultural Quarter)S Sepp / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Rembrandt House Museum14:43, 17 October 2006 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0