Frans Lanting

Frans Lanting (born 13 July 1951) is a Dutch National Geographic photographer, author and speaker.

Life Lanting was born in Rotterdam in Netherlands. He studied economics at the Erasmus university in Rotterdam and later immigrated to the United States. He now lives in Santa Cruz, California, and operates a studio and gallery as well as a stock photography service. Lanting's wife Christine Eckstrom is a writer, editor, producer, and works on joint books of nature photography.

Lanting works in many different parts of the world, including the Amazon basin, Africa and Antarctica. His photographs are regularly published in National Geographic, where he served as photographer-in-residence. He took thousands of photographs of bonobos, most of which were deemed to be too explicit by the magazine, as the animals engage in frequent sexual activity. Lanter used some of these photographs in his collaboration with Frans de Waal in The Forgotten Ape (1997).

Lanting is also featured in Outdoor Photographer, Audubon, and Life. A 2005 exhibit in the Field Museum of Natural History, entitled Jungles, focused on the plants and animals of the rainforest. His 2006 exhibit, Life: A Journey Through Time, part of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California, combined his photography with the music of Philip Glass. A traveling exhibition, Frans Lanting: LIFE began in fall 2006 at the Dutch natural history museum in Leiden, Netherlands. The show then traveled through Europe and the United States.

Lanting is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP).

From May through July 2012 there was an exhibition with 75 photos from Life: A Journey Through Time on the in the harbour of Rotterdam.

In August 2012, Lanting became an ambassador of the World Wide Fund for Nature in the Netherlands. On 25 August 2012, a special concert version of LIFE was held in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam celebrating 50 years of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Exhibitions 29 May – 30 August 1998: "Eye in Eye", Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam 5 October 2000 – 14 January 2001: "Jungles", about tropical rainforest, Naturalis in Leiden 23 September 2006 – 2 September 2007: "LIFE", a journey through life, Naturalis in Leiden 9 June – 4 September 2016: Solo exhibition: Dialogue with Nature, Netherlands Photo Museum in Rotterdam January 19–April 30, 2023: Bay of Life: From Wind to Whales, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History

Awards 1988 – World Press Photo 1989 – World Press Photo 1991 – Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1997 – Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography Award, Sierra Club 1997 – 2nd prize Nature and Environment Stories, World Press Photo 1999 – Lanting was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of The Royal Photographic Society in 1999. These are awarded to distinguished persons having, from their position or attainments, an intimate connection with the science or fine art of photography or the application thereof. 2001 H.R.H. Prince Bernhard inducted him as a Knight in the Royal Order of the Golden Ark, the Netherlands' highest conservation honor. 2005 – Lennart Nilsson Award 2008 – Photographer of the Year, Photoimaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association 2010 – The Royal Geographical Society's Cherry Kearton Medal and Award 2021 – Art/Act Award from the David Brower Center

Awards 2015 – WNF-Frans Lanting Award by World Wide Fund for Nature 2018 – Wildlife Photographer of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award

Books 1982 – Feathers 1985 – Islands of the West 1990 – The Albatrosses of Midway Island 1990 – Madagascar, A World Out of Time 1993 – Forgotten Edens, Exploring the World's Wild Places (with Christine Eckstrom) 1993 – Okavango, Africa's Last Eden (with Christine Eckstrom) 1996 – Animal Athletes 1997 – Bonobo, The Forgotten Ape (with Frans de Waal) 1997 – Eye to Eye, Intimate Encounters With the Animal World (with Christine Eckstrom) 1999 – Living Planet, Preserving Edens of the Earth (with David Doubilet and Galen Rowell) 2000 – Jungles (with Christine Eckstrom) 2003 – Penguin (with Christine Eckstrom) 2006 – LIFE, A Journey Through Time 2017 – Into Africa 2022 - Bay of Life: From Wind to Whales (with Christine Eckstrom)