Lanting To Receive Honorary Award

SANTA CRUZ, CA, September 16, 2013. We are pleased to announce that Frans Lanting will receive the first Honorary Award from National Geographic Magazine in the Netherlands on Monday September 23, 2013, at the Foam Museum of photography in Amsterdam. The award honors the photographic achievements of Frans Lanting and celebrates the 125th anniversary of the National Geographic Society. The Master of Ceremonies for the event will be the popular Dutch TV host, Ivo Niehe. Editor Aart Aarsbergen will present the award to Frans Lanting, which includes a prize of 12,500 euros.

In their announcement about the honorary award, the National Geographic Netherlands writes, “Frans Lanting has been one of the most influential photographers of the natural world for more than three decades. With his pioneering and innovative work, he has made a unique contribution to the global reputation of National Geographic, and he has also had an enormous and enduring impact on nature photography in the Netherlands.”

Lanting, born in 1951 in Rotterdam, has photographed on all seven continents, and has published more than two dozen stories in National Geographic Magazine. He has documented wildlife from the Amazon to Antarctica to promote understanding about the Earth and it natural history through images that convey a passion for nature and a sense of wonder about our living planet.

In 2006, Lanting and his wife and partner, Chris Eckstrom, launched The LIFE Project, a lyrical interpretation of the history of life on Earth, as a book, an exhibition, and a multimedia orchestral performance with music by Philip Glass. The LIFE symphony has been touring North America and Europe ever since, and in August 2012, it was performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, with Her Majesty Queen Beatrix in attendance.

Lanting has received many awards for his work, including top honors from World Press Photo, the title of BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award. Lanting has also been honored as a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society in London and is a recipient of Sweden’s Lennart Nilsson Award. In 2001, H.R.H. Prince Bernhard inducted him as a Knight in the Royal Order of the Golden Ark, the Netherlands’ highest conservation honor.

Lanting’s mission is to use photography to help create leverage for conservation efforts ranging from local initiatives to global campaigns, through his publications, alliances, public appearances, and active support of environmental organizations. He serves on the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund and on the Chairman’s Council of Conservation International. Lanting is a Trustee of the Foundation Board of the University of California Santa Cruz, a columnist for Outdoor Photographer, and a co-founder of the North American Nature Photographers Association (NANPA).

Frans Lanting makes his home in Santa Cruz, California, with Chris Eckstrom, an editor, videographer, and former staff writer at National Geographic with whom he collaborates on fieldwork and publishing projects.

The National Geographic Society, founded in 1888, is the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organization in the world. National Geographic Magazine is published in 34 languages and is read by more than sixty million people worldwide.