Teun Voeten
Biography of Teun Voeten
Awardwinning war photographer, author and anthropologist
Teun Voeten, who originally studied Cultural Anthropology and Philosophy in the Netherlands, is an award-winning photojournalist and author who has been covering the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sudan, Angola, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Colombia, Gaza, Liberia, Lebanon and Iraq. His work has been published in Vanity Fair, Newsweek, The New Yorker and National Geographic, among others. Voeten is also a contributing photographer for organizations such as the International Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations.
In 1996, he published 'Tunnel People', an anthropological-journalistic account of 5 months living with an underground homeless community in New York. This book will appear this September 2010 in a translated and updated version in the USA. In 2000, He published 'How de Body? Hope and Horror in Sierra Leone', a book about the brutal war in this West-African country. Currently, he is working on a photo project about the drug violence in Mexico.
Voeten won numerous rewards for his photography as well as his writing. He lives between Brussels and New York.
Photos of Teun Voeten
Books of Teun Voeten
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One Man's Terrifying Journey Through an African War
Most in the calamities that have captured the headlines in recent months is the civil war that has raged in the tiny Western African nation of Sierra Leone for nearly a decade. In 1998, acclaimed photojournalist Teun Voeten headed to Sierra Leone for what he thought would be a standard assignment on the child soldiers there -- many of whom are only seven years old. No sooner had Voeten arrived, the cease-fire ended, and the battle between peacekeeping forces and the military junta erupted in full force. Taking refuge in the bush from rebels intent on killing him, Voeten was convinced his life was about to end.
How de Body? is Voeten's amazing story of survival and escape in a nation engulfed by civil war and features his award-winning, and heartbreaking, black-and-white photographs -- many of which have appeared in Vanity Fair -- from his multiple trips to this conflicted area.
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By the end of the millennium, thousands of homeless people roamed the streets of Manhattan. A small group of them went underground. Invisible to society, they managed to start a new life in the tunnel systems of the city. Acclaimed war photographer and cultural anthropologist Teun Voeten gained unprecedented access to this netherworld. For five months in 1994 and 1995 he lived, slept and worked in a tunnel underneath Manhattan's posh Upper West Side. With him, we meet Vietnam veterans, macrobiotic hippies, crack addicts, Cuban refugees, convicted killers, computer programmers, philosophical recluses and criminal runaways. Voeten describes their daily work, problems and pleasures with humor and compassion. He also witnessed the end of tunnel life. The tunnel people were evicted in 1996, but Amtrak and homeless organizations offered them alternative housing. Some succeeded in starting again above ground, while others failed.
In this updated version of the book, Voeten tracks down the original tunnel dwellers and describes what has happened in the thirteen years since they left the tunnels.Tunnel People became an instant classic in the Netherlands when it came out in 1996. It was praised as an anthropological journalistic insiders account, that in a brutally honest way describes in sometimes graphic details the ins and outs of homeless life in the mid-nineties in New York.
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Title: A ticket to
ISBN: 902-7815-47
Since 1991, Voeten has photographed conflict zones all over the world. Images from Bosnia, Sudan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan appear in A Ticket To, his first photo book. Media professor Henri Beunders wrote the intro, Voeten wrote Neo-Vulturisme in Contemporary Documentary Photography. Or: Do You Remember Goma?, a sarcastic essay that has become a classic on journalistic schools about his work in the 'front lines'.
References of Teun Voeten
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Nancy Hunt, President
"As president of the We Are Family Foundation, I have known Teun Voeten since 2003 as a colleague and a friend.
On many occasions, Teun has lent his talent as a photographer to our foundation over the years. But more importantly he has been intricately involved as a curriculum developer, lecturer and teacher for our Three Dot Dash Global Teen Leader Program, where global teen leaders gather for one week in New York to learn the critical tools to effectively “tell their stories” and amplify their work.
Teun is an extraordinarily talented journalist and writer as well as a very dedicated, compassionate and highly motivated person who loves to share and communicate his skills with others. I have seen him at several of his readings, presentations and public performances in New York and he is always thought provoking, frank and intelligent – making deep and lasting impressions on the public.
I highly and enthusiastically recommend Teun as a speaker. He has the rare talent to enthrall his audience, be it teenagers, college students, media professionals or CEOs.
We have been honored to have Teun as part of our team and family."
We Are Family Foundation
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Steven Latham
"In 2006, I introduced him as a guest speaker at LAIP, Los Angeles Inspiration Project, a TED-like event where artists, scientists, visionaries and policymakers gather to give a presentation of their work. Mr. Voeten's talk was one of the highlights of the day. In a powerful lecture, he was able to the touch the audience as no other speaker did. On another occasion, I arranged for Mr. Voeten to lecture at USC (University of Southern California) and be the guest in a public affairs show I’m producing called, “The Table.” I also interviewed him extensively for an online project of visionary artists called, “Stimulus TV,” where he talked in detail on the aesthetic and ethical aspects of war photography.
Mr. Voeten always manages to captivate the imagination of the audience. His wit and sense of humor combined with his harrowing and awe-inspiring experiences in some of the worst places on earth and his ruthless honesty and thorough knowledge of current affairs make him an unforgettable speaker."
Steven Latham Productions
Publications of Teun Voeten
Video's of' Teun Voeten
Telephone: +31 (0) 10 - 433 33 22 or via e-mail: info@speakersacademy.eu