Stephan Vanfleteren’s photographic quest for the many faces of the sea

‘The sea never makes a fuss. You don’t have to explain yourself or be polite. What does she care what you think of her or what you make of her. When you come or where you enter her. I capture, interpret, sublimate, abstract. I show everything, I show nothing.’
— Stephan Vanfleteren

In Transcripts of a Sea, the internationally renowned photographer Stephan Vanfleteren (b. 1969) shares the enchantment that has driven him to the sea over the past five years. He analyses the sea, in all her various shapes and ever-changing light, with an obsession bordering on the dangerous, and with a fluid longing.

Stormy, mirror-like, misty, thunderous, the surface deceptively calm or like a wildly-thumping washing-machine drum: the photographer does not observe it from the beach or from a boat but opts for a wet confrontation by literally immersing himself in the sea.

136 extraordinary images with texts by Stephan Vanfleteren, Johan De Smet and Manfred Sellink.

Published to accompany the eponymous exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent (MSK) from 20 September 2025 to 4 January 2026.