Photojournalism 3rd place winner

“In my father’s footsteps”

My dad used to be a miner. His stories were always fascinating and so I wanted to visit a mine myself, and try to “feel” those memories he shared with me.
I travelled to Mitrovice, which is located in the northern part of Kosovo. Time has stood still over here, and that brought me even deeper into my dad’s past. The mining company allowed me to go down for 700 meters underground with the elevator.
The darkness of the earth, the spare light from the miners helmets, the narrows which the mining resources….I could see his stories come alive. When the miners took me back to daylight, my respect for these men had become even bigger, and I knew I never felt more connected to my dad as for that moment.

As a documentary photographer, Jan Janssen capture the moments he recognises in his fellow human beings, especially those elsewhere in the world. In everyday moments, he finds the same needs, insecurities or pleasures that all people enjoy in their lives - albeit to different degrees. Travelling is inseparable from Janssen's photographic pratice. On the one hand, travelling is an opportunity to discover who you are yourself. By travelling to other places, Jan seeks precisely the things we have in common. In a world of polarisation and contrasts, sometimes even on one continent, Janssen settles geographical and symbolic boundaries by photographing people in a pure essence. He photographs the richness of our most basic human needs, like freedom, family and security - or, conversely, the absence of their obviousness. To create his photographs, Janssen works on location for long periods of time. He often returns to the same place during subsequent trips. Here he builds a bond with the local people, based on mutual respect and dignity. This 'photgraphing with a free heart' allows him to get as close to people as possible. Only in this way can he penetrate to the essence of their being, and then capture it.


Discovery