shows archive

Stuart Franklin

human footprints

At a time of strenuous worldwide efforts to protect our climate and of palpable changes in nature, the works of Stuart Franklin, who was born in London in 1956, are touching a nerve.

Franklin studied photography at the West Surrey College of Art and Design and subsequently started work for the Sunday Times and the Sunday Telegraph Magazine.

As a member of Agence Presse Sygma in Paris (1980 to 1985), he expanded his knowledge and continued his fascination with the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. Since 1989, Stuart Franklin has been a member of the world-famous photographic agency Magnum, and was its elected president from 2006 to 2009.

At the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, Stuart Franklin created a photographic icon with his world-famous photograph of a demonstrator stopping a column of tanks. This image now stands as a symbol for this incident and as a metaphor for nonviolent resistance.

Subsequently, Franklin decided to work more extensively for magazines and between 1990 and 2004, created some 20 photographic documentaries for National Geographic.
Driven by his commitment to and interest in ecology and nature, he completed a PhD in geography at Oxford University in 2002 in order to gain a better theoretical understanding for his work. 
He succeeds like few others in documenting the landscape as a snapshot of change. The subtle aesthetics of his landscape portraits reveal both the uniqueness and the fragility of nature; in the disturbingly beautiful detail of the landscape itself, and in the contamination of nature through the remnants of human activity and intervention. In his photographs, natural and unnatural processes become apparent. This work resulted in his topical book "Footprints - Our Landscape in Flux" (Thames & Hudson, 2008).

At in focus gallery, a selection of the best images from this book will be on show, along with photographs from the series "Pool", where Franklin investigates the relationship between man and nature and takes a critical-ironic look at man's attempts to re-create little corners of nature in an urban environment.
In addition to these works, in focus gallery will also present a selection of Franklin's most recent photographs from Africa.

Opening: Saturday, March 13, 2010; 7 pm - 9:30 pm. Stuart Franklin will join the opening.

Opening hours: 

March 16 till April 3, Tuesday till Saturday 4 pm- 8 pm,
April 4, till May 9, 2010 only by appointment.

Download of Images for press publishing under: press

order newsletter
back