SURF TRIBE

In Surf Tribe photographer Stephan Vanfleteren shows that surf culture encompasses much more than just competitive sport. Surfing is also and above all about a deep respect for the ocean, about the feeling of nothingness in the face of the forces of nature, about won and lost battles with others and with oneself.

Vanfleteren looks beyond the traditional surf spots of California and Hawaii and searches all over the world for people who live where the ocean touches the land. He records a fluid community, with nature as its sole leader.

He portrays young talent as well as living icons and old legends, competition surfers as well as freesurfers. In this book you will not find action photos on azure blue waves, but you will find serene black and white portraits in Vanfleteren's well-known, haunting style. He shows the real people behind the surfers, in all their strength and vulnerability. This series of images penetrates the true core of surf culture: the love for the water, the addiction to the wave, the passion for surf.

With more than three hundred portraits of Kelly Slater, Gerry Lopez, John John Florence, Laird Hamilton, Bethany Hamilton, Greg Noll, Stephanie Gilmore, Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Mickey Munoz, Filipe Toledo and Tom Carroll, among others.

With a foreword by surf legend Gerry Lopez.

Author: Stephan Vanfleteren | 400 pages | engisch | 2018 | 22,5 x 4,5 x 29,08 cm | Hardcover