Biographies
The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay.
LARRY FINK www.larryfinkphotography.com
ALEX TELFER www.alextelfer.com
ANNA VOITENKO www.annavoitenko.com
LEONARD NIMOY
ALEKSEY MYAKISHEV http://alekseymyakishev.photoshelter.com/
All of our advertising is certified by Google and therefore may be viewed safely.
COLLEEN PLUMB www.colleenplumb.com
IVAN TYKHY www.ivantykhy.com
Larry Fink is a professional photographer of 50 years. He has had one man shows at the
Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art,
the Musee de la Lausanne Photographie in Belgium, and the Musee de l'Elysee in Switzerland,
amongst others. He shows in galleries regularly in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, France.
Along with two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships in 1976 and 1979, and two National
Endowment for the Arts, Individual Photography Fellowships in 1978 and 1986, he was awarded
an honorary doctorate from the College for Creative Studies, College of Art and Design, Detroit,
2002.
Larry has several books published including: Social Graces (Aperture 1984, no longer in print);
Boxing (powerHouse Books 1997); Fish and Wine, (Lafayette College, 1997); Runway
(powerHouse Books 2000); a second publication of Social Graces (powerHouse Books 2001)
which features images of that time never published before; The Forbidden Pictures (powerhouse
Books 2004) a political satire on the Bush regime; Larry Fink (Phaidon 2005) a small retrospective
book; Primal Elegance (Lodima Press 2006); and a book of music images Somewhere There's Music (Damiani Editore 2006).
Larry Also has a commissioned book from the Cleveland Clinic called Two Views (2006). In 2008 he created a high art,
promotional book for the Frescobaldi Family in Italy.
His commercial work includes advertising campaigns for Smirnoff, Bacardi, and Cunard Lines (Q.E.2). His work has
appeared in top publications such as Vanity Fair, W, GQ, Detour, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker.
He has been teaching for the past 41 years, the last 16 years as a professor of photography at Bard College.
Larry has had one-person shows at the Museum of Modern Art, 1979, Les Rencontres de Photographie, Arles, France,
1993; Musee d l'Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1994; the Whitney Museum, 1997, Musee de la Photographie, Charleroi,
Belgium, 1997; along with gallery shows too numerous to mention over the last four decades. More recently, in 2007, Larry
has had several shows; "Larry Fink and George Grosz" at the Heckscher Museum in Long Island, "Somewhere There's Music"
at the Gallery Forni in Milan, Italy, "Somewhere There's Music" at the Museo de la Rosse in Bologna and the Museo Alinari in
Florence, Italy and "Logging, The Olympic Peninsula" at the Lorenselli Arte Gallery in Milan, Italy. He also co-curated a show
on Lisette Model and her influence on the world of photography for the Aperture Foundation that opened in September 2007.
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Larry photographed an interactive exhibition where the images of the evening were
projected on the wall in real time in the Temple of Dendur. In February 2008 at Princeton University, he exhibited a mini study
of poverty in America entitled "Diminishing Returns". Larry was commissioned by Vanity Fair to cover the 2008 political trail of
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. These photographs were shown at the Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York
and at the Robert Klein Gallery in the Fall of 2008. In 2009 he photographed the Orpheus Orchestra at Lafayette College in
Easton, PA.
Recently Larry has had one man shows at Box Gallerie in Bruxelles, Belgium, the Contact Festival in Toronto, Canada, the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. There have also been retrospectives
of his work at the Sheldon Art Gallery in St. Louis, Missori, as well as the Fahey Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. Upcoming is a
show at Schmidt/Dean in Philadelphia, PA.
Larry has recently has had three books published, Night at the Met (University of California Berkeley, Blurb 2009), Attraction
and Desire: 50 Years in Photography (The Sheldon Art Galleries 2011), and The Vanities: Hollywood Parties 2000-2009
(Schirmer/Mosel 2011).
Telfer works within the Advertising, Design and Editorial sectors, areas that he has always
had great desire to be involved His commitment to photography has also led to him to directing
TV Commercials which has enabled him to transfer his photographic knowledge into the moving
image, a process that he continues to develop and enjoys immensely.
In 2005 he purchased a disused nineteenth century Church and set about transforming it into
his ‘Creative Hub.’ The facility has enabled Telfer to build within it a team of highly skilled
creative individuals who take care of all his production requirements. Telfer’s Production team
have all been selected and developed with one unified goal, to deliver the best possible results
to any given shoot.
Recently Telfer has worked on Assignments for Nike, Nikon, Sony Music, Ernst & Young,
Glaxo Smith Kline, Land Rover, EMI, and the BBC.
Current honours and awards include being recognised by Campaign Magazine as their ‘Number One Advertising Photographer
of 2009’. Other prestigious accolades include The American Photography Annuals 2009 and 2010, Communication Arts
Photography Annual 50 and 51, Lurzer’s Archive Top 200 Ad Photographers Worldwide 2010, Creative Review Photography
Annual and The International Photography Awards.
With Representation throughout the world, travel is a major part Telfer’s life. Home however, remains his native, rural
Northumberland in the North of England. Here he resides with his wife Helen, son James and Sally the Labrador.
Anna Voitenko was born in 1980 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Voitenko has been photographing since 2004.
She has focused her documentary work on the project about degenerating folk culture arts and
crafts, a part of world culture and part of spiritual life of man that leads to deformation of the human
consciousness, deterioration of human quality. She collects stories about people's lives in her own
country. This work of 3 years was published in 2008 in her first book "Iza". Iza is a village where
people still keep traditions of authentic wickerwork.
In 2011 Anna worked on the documentary movie about a Leper colony in Cairo and on the Garbage
city story in Cairo.
Anna has won several international photography awards including the Grand Prix of Best
Photographers 2009, Award from the Russian Photojournalism Development Fund, Official
Honorable Mention for the 2008 All Roads Photography Program. Grant from the Swedish-
Ukrainian photo project Urban Structures in 2007. First place in the Contest of Journalistic
Photography Psychiatry and Dignity of a Person in 2006.
2010 - NOOR-Nikon masterclass in documentary photography.
Anna Voitenko works with French agency Le Desk and has been published in National Geographic,
La Letre Le moniteur, FOCUS WEEKLY UA and others.
Leonard Nimoy first experienced the magic of making photographic images as a teen-ager
in the early 1940s. His darkroom was the family bathroom in their small Boston apartment.
His subjects were family and friends. He studied at UCLA under Robert Heineken in the
early 1970s and later received an “artist in residence” appointment at the American
Academy in Rome.
Mr Nimoy’s photography is included in many museum collections, including The Museum
of Fine Arts, Houston, The Judah L. Magnes Museum, The LA County Museum of Art, the
Jewish Museum of NY, The New Orleans Museum of Fine Art and The Hammer Museum.
He has published three books of his photography: Shekhina, The Full Body Project, and
Secret Selves. Mr. Nimoy’s most recent one person exhibition was “Secret Selves” at the
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, which was listed by Artnet as one of the ten
most important art exhibits in 2010.
Besides his rising stature as a major contemporary American photographer, in his spare time Mr. Nimoy moonlights as an actor,
director, philanthropist, and as one of the world’s best loved and respected personalities, Mr. Spock.
Myakishev is a freelance photographer, living in Moscow and working throughout the world.
He worked as a press photographer from 1991 to 1999 for several local newspapers.
In 1998 in cooperation with German photographer Anneta Freack he participated in the project
"Two sights to Viatka" and in the same year exhibited his works in the Art Museum of Kirov and a
bit later - in "Nadar" gallery in Germany.
In 1999 he moved to Moscow and became a freelance photographer. During this time he worked
with Russian and foreign media such as "Russian Newsweek", "Kommersant", " Helsingin Sanomat",
"APU","Talouselama" and many others.
1996 and 1997 he received a Russian Ministry of Culture grant.
1998 and 2001 Myakishev won prizes of "INTERFOTO" for his series about pilgrims and another
one about the Northern Urals
In 1999 participated in the exhibition "Generation portrait", organized by "Russkoe Pole" gallery
In 2000 exhibited his works in the University of Oldenburg in Germany.
In 2001 his series "The Pilgrims" was exhibitied on the "Religion at the turn of the century" exhibition,
organized by Moscow House of Photography
In 2006 his works were exhibited on "Margarut Orcenar" villa in France
In 2008 exhibited his works in "Bibliotheque Municipale D`Auxerre" in France
In 2009 exhibition "Windows of time" gallery "Feofaniya" Moscow
In 2010 exhibition "Windows of time" gallery "Art-Propaganda" Samara
In 2010 exhibition "Moscow-Vyatka" gallery Maison du Pays Coulangeois, Coulanges la Vineuse,
France
In 2010, the competition "Award FRF" 2nd place in the series "Road to faith" in the category
"General News"
In 2010, participation in the photo exhibition "We" internet community "Photopolygon" Krasnodar
In 2010, participation in the photo exhibition "See Paris and live" in Moscow
In 2010, at the competition "Bestphotographer" third place for a series of works "Tskhinvali-August"
In 2010, Exhibition "Chronicle of provincial life" Omsk
In 2010, Exhibition"Moscou&Viatka" in Avalon (Yonne) France
In 2010, Participation in the Prize winners FRF-2009, Novosibirsk
In 2010, Participation in the photo exhibition "We" internet community "Photopolygon" Moscow
In 2011 personal exhibition "Wonderful trip" at Leica Camera Russia, Moscow
In 2011 personal exhibition in project Zakari Gilbert "Zerkalo"Quebec,Canada
In 2011 Participation in the photo exhibition " Reflection in time" Bestphotographer-2010, Moscow
In 2011 Participation in the photo exhibition " Private holiday" gallery Fotodoc, Moscow
In 2011 personal exhibition" People from the past" gallery Art school,Kirovo-Chepetsk
Books:
"Wide-frame eye" Blurb,2010
http://www.blurb.com/books/1765128
Photos are in private collections in Russia, France, Germany, Spain, etc.
Colleen Plumb (b. 1970) is a Chicago based photographer and mother of two young daughters.
Among other projects, for the past fourteen years Plumb has been working on a series of
photographs about animals and the myriad ways that we’ve integrated them into our lives. Her work
is held in numerous public and private collections and has been exhibited nationally and
internationally. Recent solo exhibits have been at the Historic Water Tower Gallery in Chicago, Jen
Bekman Gallery in New York, and Dina Mitrani Gallery in Miami. Plumb’s work has been widely
published and was recently featured in PDN, TIME Magazine’s LightBox, the BBC Brazil, and The
New York Times LENS blog. Radius Books has just published her first monograph, Animals Are
Outside Today (2011), distributed by DAP/Artbook. Plumb teaches in the Photography Department
at Columbia College Chicago and is currently working on a project about elephants in captivity.
Ukrainian, born in 1982 in Kiev.
Discovered photography at the age of 18. For three years (2005-2008) worked as a photographer
for UKRINFORM Ukrainian National Press Agency.
Since 2008 - independent photographer. He is currently shooting for a personal project
www.thekedbl.com succinctly described as the discovery of world cultures in a diversity of forms
and expressions.
His work is published in magazines and newspapers in Ukraine and throughout the world.
MADS NISSEN www.madsnissen,com
Born 1979.
“I was 19 years old when I realized that I wanted be a photographer. It was in the crowded streets
of Mérida during a nine-month stay in Venezuela. I had bought an old camera from a friend but
found myself not interested in the landscape or sunset. Instead, I was interested in the people, the
poverty and the cracks in the surroundings. I knew then that by taking pictures I was able to
combine my three major interests that I had since early on in my life.
Firstly, it was a way to fulfill my ambition to change the things in today's world and society, which I
felt was unjust and needed attention. Secondly, I was deeply interested in other people's life and
the world around me. Taking pictures became a way for me to open new doors and digest what I
saw behind them. Lastly, I had always had a desire to express myself creatively. Being a
photographer allowed me to make my own interpretation of what I saw; to raise questions and
investigate rather than coming up with the exact answers.
Since then my work has mainly focused on contemporary issues and dilemmas such as
overpopulation, poverty, human rights violations and man's often-destructive relationship with nature.
Just after I graduated with a degree in photojournalism from the Danish School of Journalism in
2007 I moved to Shanghai to document the human and social consequences of China's historical economic rise. After two years
in China, I returned to Denmark where I currently work as staff photographer for the national newspaper Berlingske. At
Berlingske, much of my time is devoted to in-depth feature stories as well as international news. Aside from Berlingske, I have
worked on my long-term personal project from the Amazon since 2006, and I still do assignments for other clients as well (last
year alone I photographed two feature stories for Stern in China and another one for MSF in Colombia).
I'm more of a storyteller than a photographer. From early on I have produced my own stories and projects. Not just doing the
research and the photographs, but writing articles myself ensures me freedom and control of my work. In this spirit I have
embraced the new possibilities of online storytelling and my most recent multimedia has just been awarded as best multimedia
in Denmark's annual Picture of the Year.” Mads Nissen
Mads is represented by Panos Pictures
The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay.
LARRY FINK www.larryfinkphotography.com
ALEX TELFER www.alextelfer.com
ANNA VOITENKO www.annavoitenko.com
LEONARD NIMOY
ALEKSEY MYAKISHEV http://alekseymyakishev.photoshelter.com/
All of our advertising is certified by Google and therefore may be viewed safely.
COLLEEN PLUMB www.colleenplumb.com
IVAN TYKHY www.ivantykhy.com
Larry Fink is a professional photographer of 50 years. He has had one man shows at the
Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art,
the Musee de la Lausanne Photographie in Belgium, and the Musee de l'Elysee in Switzerland,
amongst others. He shows in galleries regularly in New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, France.
Along with two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships in 1976 and 1979, and two National
Endowment for the Arts, Individual Photography Fellowships in 1978 and 1986, he was awarded
an honorary doctorate from the College for Creative Studies, College of Art and Design, Detroit,
2002.
Larry has several books published including: Social Graces (Aperture 1984, no longer in print);
Boxing (powerHouse Books 1997); Fish and Wine, (Lafayette College, 1997); Runway
(powerHouse Books 2000); a second publication of Social Graces (powerHouse Books 2001)
which features images of that time never published before; The Forbidden Pictures (powerhouse
Books 2004) a political satire on the Bush regime; Larry Fink (Phaidon 2005) a small retrospective
book; Primal Elegance (Lodima Press 2006); and a book of music images Somewhere There's Music (Damiani Editore 2006).
Larry Also has a commissioned book from the Cleveland Clinic called Two Views (2006). In 2008 he created a high art,
promotional book for the Frescobaldi Family in Italy.
His commercial work includes advertising campaigns for Smirnoff, Bacardi, and Cunard Lines (Q.E.2). His work has
appeared in top publications such as Vanity Fair, W, GQ, Detour, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker.
He has been teaching for the past 41 years, the last 16 years as a professor of photography at Bard College.
Larry has had one-person shows at the Museum of Modern Art, 1979, Les Rencontres de Photographie, Arles, France,
1993; Musee d l'Elysee, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1994; the Whitney Museum, 1997, Musee de la Photographie, Charleroi,
Belgium, 1997; along with gallery shows too numerous to mention over the last four decades. More recently, in 2007, Larry
has had several shows; "Larry Fink and George Grosz" at the Heckscher Museum in Long Island, "Somewhere There's Music"
at the Gallery Forni in Milan, Italy, "Somewhere There's Music" at the Museo de la Rosse in Bologna and the Museo Alinari in
Florence, Italy and "Logging, The Olympic Peninsula" at the Lorenselli Arte Gallery in Milan, Italy. He also co-curated a show
on Lisette Model and her influence on the world of photography for the Aperture Foundation that opened in September 2007.
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Larry photographed an interactive exhibition where the images of the evening were
projected on the wall in real time in the Temple of Dendur. In February 2008 at Princeton University, he exhibited a mini study
of poverty in America entitled "Diminishing Returns". Larry was commissioned by Vanity Fair to cover the 2008 political trail of
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. These photographs were shown at the Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York
and at the Robert Klein Gallery in the Fall of 2008. In 2009 he photographed the Orpheus Orchestra at Lafayette College in
Easton, PA.
Recently Larry has had one man shows at Box Gallerie in Bruxelles, Belgium, the Contact Festival in Toronto, Canada, the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. There have also been retrospectives
of his work at the Sheldon Art Gallery in St. Louis, Missori, as well as the Fahey Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. Upcoming is a
show at Schmidt/Dean in Philadelphia, PA.
Larry has recently has had three books published, Night at the Met (University of California Berkeley, Blurb 2009), Attraction
and Desire: 50 Years in Photography (The Sheldon Art Galleries 2011), and The Vanities: Hollywood Parties 2000-2009
(Schirmer/Mosel 2011).
Telfer works within the Advertising, Design and Editorial sectors, areas that he has always
had great desire to be involved His commitment to photography has also led to him to directing
TV Commercials which has enabled him to transfer his photographic knowledge into the moving
image, a process that he continues to develop and enjoys immensely.
In 2005 he purchased a disused nineteenth century Church and set about transforming it into
his ‘Creative Hub.’ The facility has enabled Telfer to build within it a team of highly skilled
creative individuals who take care of all his production requirements. Telfer’s Production team
have all been selected and developed with one unified goal, to deliver the best possible results
to any given shoot.
Recently Telfer has worked on Assignments for Nike, Nikon, Sony Music, Ernst & Young,
Glaxo Smith Kline, Land Rover, EMI, and the BBC.
Current honours and awards include being recognised by Campaign Magazine as their ‘Number One Advertising Photographer
of 2009’. Other prestigious accolades include The American Photography Annuals 2009 and 2010, Communication Arts
Photography Annual 50 and 51, Lurzer’s Archive Top 200 Ad Photographers Worldwide 2010, Creative Review Photography
Annual and The International Photography Awards.
With Representation throughout the world, travel is a major part Telfer’s life. Home however, remains his native, rural
Northumberland in the North of England. Here he resides with his wife Helen, son James and Sally the Labrador.
Anna Voitenko was born in 1980 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Voitenko has been photographing since 2004.
She has focused her documentary work on the project about degenerating folk culture arts and
crafts, a part of world culture and part of spiritual life of man that leads to deformation of the human
consciousness, deterioration of human quality. She collects stories about people's lives in her own
country. This work of 3 years was published in 2008 in her first book "Iza". Iza is a village where
people still keep traditions of authentic wickerwork.
In 2011 Anna worked on the documentary movie about a Leper colony in Cairo and on the Garbage
city story in Cairo.
Anna has won several international photography awards including the Grand Prix of Best
Photographers 2009, Award from the Russian Photojournalism Development Fund, Official
Honorable Mention for the 2008 All Roads Photography Program. Grant from the Swedish-
Ukrainian photo project Urban Structures in 2007. First place in the Contest of Journalistic
Photography Psychiatry and Dignity of a Person in 2006.
2010 - NOOR-Nikon masterclass in documentary photography.
Anna Voitenko works with French agency Le Desk and has been published in National Geographic,
La Letre Le moniteur, FOCUS WEEKLY UA and others.
Leonard Nimoy first experienced the magic of making photographic images as a teen-ager
in the early 1940s. His darkroom was the family bathroom in their small Boston apartment.
His subjects were family and friends. He studied at UCLA under Robert Heineken in the
early 1970s and later received an “artist in residence” appointment at the American
Academy in Rome.
Mr Nimoy’s photography is included in many museum collections, including The Museum
of Fine Arts, Houston, The Judah L. Magnes Museum, The LA County Museum of Art, the
Jewish Museum of NY, The New Orleans Museum of Fine Art and The Hammer Museum.
He has published three books of his photography: Shekhina, The Full Body Project, and
Secret Selves. Mr. Nimoy’s most recent one person exhibition was “Secret Selves” at the
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, which was listed by Artnet as one of the ten
most important art exhibits in 2010.
Besides his rising stature as a major contemporary American photographer, in his spare time Mr. Nimoy moonlights as an actor,
director, philanthropist, and as one of the world’s best loved and respected personalities, Mr. Spock.
Myakishev is a freelance photographer, living in Moscow and working throughout the world.
He worked as a press photographer from 1991 to 1999 for several local newspapers.
In 1998 in cooperation with German photographer Anneta Freack he participated in the project
"Two sights to Viatka" and in the same year exhibited his works in the Art Museum of Kirov and a
bit later - in "Nadar" gallery in Germany.
In 1999 he moved to Moscow and became a freelance photographer. During this time he worked
with Russian and foreign media such as "Russian Newsweek", "Kommersant", " Helsingin Sanomat",
"APU","Talouselama" and many others.
1996 and 1997 he received a Russian Ministry of Culture grant.
1998 and 2001 Myakishev won prizes of "INTERFOTO" for his series about pilgrims and another
one about the Northern Urals
In 1999 participated in the exhibition "Generation portrait", organized by "Russkoe Pole" gallery
In 2000 exhibited his works in the University of Oldenburg in Germany.
In 2001 his series "The Pilgrims" was exhibitied on the "Religion at the turn of the century" exhibition,
organized by Moscow House of Photography
In 2006 his works were exhibited on "Margarut Orcenar" villa in France
In 2008 exhibited his works in "Bibliotheque Municipale D`Auxerre" in France
In 2009 exhibition "Windows of time" gallery "Feofaniya" Moscow
In 2010 exhibition "Windows of time" gallery "Art-Propaganda" Samara
In 2010 exhibition "Moscow-Vyatka" gallery Maison du Pays Coulangeois, Coulanges la Vineuse,
France
In 2010, the competition "Award FRF" 2nd place in the series "Road to faith" in the category
"General News"
In 2010, participation in the photo exhibition "We" internet community "Photopolygon" Krasnodar
In 2010, participation in the photo exhibition "See Paris and live" in Moscow
In 2010, at the competition "Bestphotographer" third place for a series of works "Tskhinvali-August"
In 2010, Exhibition "Chronicle of provincial life" Omsk
In 2010, Exhibition"Moscou&Viatka" in Avalon (Yonne) France
In 2010, Participation in the Prize winners FRF-2009, Novosibirsk
In 2010, Participation in the photo exhibition "We" internet community "Photopolygon" Moscow
In 2011 personal exhibition "Wonderful trip" at Leica Camera Russia, Moscow
In 2011 personal exhibition in project Zakari Gilbert "Zerkalo"Quebec,Canada
In 2011 Participation in the photo exhibition " Reflection in time" Bestphotographer-2010, Moscow
In 2011 Participation in the photo exhibition " Private holiday" gallery Fotodoc, Moscow
In 2011 personal exhibition" People from the past" gallery Art school,Kirovo-Chepetsk
Books:
"Wide-frame eye" Blurb,2010
http://www.blurb.com/books/1765128
Photos are in private collections in Russia, France, Germany, Spain, etc.
Colleen Plumb (b. 1970) is a Chicago based photographer and mother of two young daughters.
Among other projects, for the past fourteen years Plumb has been working on a series of
photographs about animals and the myriad ways that we’ve integrated them into our lives. Her work
is held in numerous public and private collections and has been exhibited nationally and
internationally. Recent solo exhibits have been at the Historic Water Tower Gallery in Chicago, Jen
Bekman Gallery in New York, and Dina Mitrani Gallery in Miami. Plumb’s work has been widely
published and was recently featured in PDN, TIME Magazine’s LightBox, the BBC Brazil, and The
New York Times LENS blog. Radius Books has just published her first monograph, Animals Are
Outside Today (2011), distributed by DAP/Artbook. Plumb teaches in the Photography Department
at Columbia College Chicago and is currently working on a project about elephants in captivity.
Ukrainian, born in 1982 in Kiev.
Discovered photography at the age of 18. For three years (2005-2008) worked as a photographer
for UKRINFORM Ukrainian National Press Agency.
Since 2008 - independent photographer. He is currently shooting for a personal project
www.thekedbl.com succinctly described as the discovery of world cultures in a diversity of forms
and expressions.
His work is published in magazines and newspapers in Ukraine and throughout the world.
MADS NISSEN www.madsnissen,com
Born 1979.
“I was 19 years old when I realized that I wanted be a photographer. It was in the crowded streets
of Mérida during a nine-month stay in Venezuela. I had bought an old camera from a friend but
found myself not interested in the landscape or sunset. Instead, I was interested in the people, the
poverty and the cracks in the surroundings. I knew then that by taking pictures I was able to
combine my three major interests that I had since early on in my life.
Firstly, it was a way to fulfill my ambition to change the things in today's world and society, which I
felt was unjust and needed attention. Secondly, I was deeply interested in other people's life and
the world around me. Taking pictures became a way for me to open new doors and digest what I
saw behind them. Lastly, I had always had a desire to express myself creatively. Being a
photographer allowed me to make my own interpretation of what I saw; to raise questions and
investigate rather than coming up with the exact answers.
Since then my work has mainly focused on contemporary issues and dilemmas such as
overpopulation, poverty, human rights violations and man's often-destructive relationship with nature.
Just after I graduated with a degree in photojournalism from the Danish School of Journalism in
2007 I moved to Shanghai to document the human and social consequences of China's historical economic rise. After two years
in China, I returned to Denmark where I currently work as staff photographer for the national newspaper Berlingske. At
Berlingske, much of my time is devoted to in-depth feature stories as well as international news. Aside from Berlingske, I have
worked on my long-term personal project from the Amazon since 2006, and I still do assignments for other clients as well (last
year alone I photographed two feature stories for Stern in China and another one for MSF in Colombia).
I'm more of a storyteller than a photographer. From early on I have produced my own stories and projects. Not just doing the
research and the photographs, but writing articles myself ensures me freedom and control of my work. In this spirit I have
embraced the new possibilities of online storytelling and my most recent multimedia has just been awarded as best multimedia
in Denmark's annual Picture of the Year.” Mads Nissen
Mads is represented by Panos Pictures