diff --git a/nifty/plotting/plotter/plotter_base.py b/nifty/plotting/plotter/plotter_base.py
index 139cb2d5b272d10d7234f2b0ef4984475c30d2ac..16c2cfec349a43dacc20f82c4ae0744ad32e015e 100644
--- a/nifty/plotting/plotter/plotter_base.py
+++ b/nifty/plotting/plotter/plotter_base.py
@@ -86,17 +86,20 @@ class PlotterBase(Loggable, object):
                      for field in fields]
 
         # create plots
-        plots_list = []
-        for slice_list in utilities.get_slice_list(data_list[0].shape, axes):
-            plots_list += \
-                    [[self.plot.at(self._parse_data(current_data,
-                                                    field,
-                                                    spaces))
-                      for (current_data, field) in zip(data_list, fields)]]
-
-        figures = [self.figure.at(plots, title=title) for plots in plots_list]
-
-        self._finalize_figure(figures, path=path)
+        if rank == 0:
+            plots_list = []
+            for slice_list in utilities.get_slice_list(data_list[0].shape,
+                                                       axes):
+                plots_list += \
+                        [[self.plot.at(self._parse_data(current_data,
+                                                        field,
+                                                        spaces))
+                          for (current_data, field) in zip(data_list, fields)]]
+
+            figures = [self.figure.at(plots, title=title)
+                       for plots in plots_list]
+
+            self._finalize_figure(figures, path=path)
 
     def _get_data_from_field(self, field, spaces, data_extractor):
         for i, space_index in enumerate(spaces):