Frother of the Month – Franck Gazzola

By Dan Hutton on February 27, 2015 in People

For those readers who do not know you, can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Franck Gazzola and I am the owner and lead photographer of the Frothers Gallery, a fine Art photographic gallery specialising in ocean-inspired images.

New logo, new website – there have been quite a few changes at Frothers lately; can you tell us what has been happening in the last year?
2014 has been a transition year for Frothers. Firstly, with Brad Malyon and his wife Christie moving up to Newcastle with their growing family, the gallery changed hands. We’ve spent a lot of time rebuilding the brand, re-assessing its core values and its vision for the future. We want to bring the best of the ocean, not just from the Eastern Suburbs, but from other places in Australia and around the world. From there, it’s been a matter of executing all those changes. We got a new team in place, we’ve redone our branding and logos, and we’ve relaunched a totally new website, making as much space as possible for the pictures.

Speaking of new team members, how about those names that you’ve got on-board – Ben Thouard, Chris Burkard – it doesn’t get much better than that, does it?
Photographers like Chris and Ben bring back images that are out of this world from all sorts of inaccessible locations, but we see value in every member. All of us bring something that the other doesn’t have. I am stoked to work with young talents like Beau Pilgrim and Martin Zariquiey Labarthe, as well as old hats like Greg Rabejac. We have Aussies, Frenchies, an American and a Chilean in the team, because there is one thing that every region in the world has in common: the ocean.

What’s your exact role with Frothers now?
I’d say I’m some kind of the photographic orchestra conductor.

So with all those new photographers from around the world, is Frothers leaving the Eastern Suburbs?
Not at all. This is still home for the Frothers Gallery. We will make space for other places though, and bring our viewers a more diverse experience. We want to mix it up a bit, and one of our missions, besides selling images, is to make people explore more. We’ll be showcasing fresh images from the Central Coast, North Coast, Tahiti, Hawaii, California, and France. Plus, there is almost always one of us travelling to exotic and remote locations, so that will add to the diversity.

Will your e-newsletter still be going out?
Yes, of course. The only thing that will change, is the frequency. In a world where people see hundreds of images every day on their social media feeds, we believe in quality over quantity. We want to achieve the highest rate of jaw-dropping shots that we can.

I heard through the grapevine that you’re about to head off on a serious adventure yourself; is that true?
That’s true indeed. I am leaving on a photographic assignment to the North Pole for seven weeks.

Are you surfing the Pole?
Not really (laughs). I will be following a team of scientists and underwater explorers who are roaming on a boat in the northern part of Greenland for two years to study underwater marine life and the impact of climate change on the ice cap, from under the ice. It’s called Under The Pole (check them out online or on FB/Instagram).

Will you posting pictures from over there?
I hope so. That’s the plan. The ocean, liquid or frozen, is the ocean. Those extreme divers are probably some of the craziest frothers I’ll ever meet!

Any last words?
Go to www.frothers.com.au and subscribe to our newsletter. Our goal is to do our best to amaze you, and that’s a pretty good reason to subscribe!