About
Sasja van Vechgel is based in Denmark (born in the Netherlands in 1975). After completing her master’s degree in Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam in 1998, she turned her passion for photography into her profession. She has been living and working in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Tanzania, Indonesia and Denmark for the past 19 years. This has resulted in a wide experience working with different people, cultures, settings for assignments.
Characteristic for Sasja’s work is the combination of documentary photography (often focused on human rights and health issues) and anthropology, with an artsy flavor. Her ability to connect with people, gain their trust, and make them feel comfortable with the camera, results in very genuine images of a situation and/or person. Her work has been exhibited in Copenhagen, Berlin, Netherlands, Tanzania, Dresden. Her major works include: TRANSCENDING GENDER (2018), ‘M’ (2014), HEALERS OF TANZANIA (2013)
Her work has won several international awards and nominations: Sony World Photography Award (2010, 2011), Julia Margaret Cameron Award (2012, 2013, 2015, 2018), Dutch Portfolio PF Award (2014) and HPA/UNESCO Folklore award (2013). In 2010 Sasja published a coffee-table book (The Book of Dar).