Jan Banning was born in the Netherlands in 1954, from Dutch-East-Indies parents. He studies social and economic history at the university of Nijmegen. He has been working as a photographer since 1981. His work, rooted in both art and journalism, has been exhibited and published widely in books, magazines and newspapers. The central concern in his work is the theme of state power; Banning has produced series on the long-term consequences of war and the world of government bureaucracy. Currently he is working on a portrait series of World War II « comfort women » in Indonesia. Aside from Dutch, Banning is fluent in English, German and Spanish, speaks French reasonably well, and speaks some Portuguese and Indonesian.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2011 Atma Jaya University, Jakarta,Indonesia (Comfort Women)
2010 Fotoweek Washington DC, USA (Bureaucratics in Projections of Reality)
2010 Photaumnales, Beauvais, France (Bureaucratics, group)
2010 Erasmushuis, Jakarta, Indonesia (Comfort Women)
2009 Stadthaus Ulm, Germany (Bureaucratics)
2009 Perspektivet Museum, Tromso, Norway (Bureaucratics)
2008 New York Photo Festival, New York, USA (Bureaucratics in: Typologies)
2007 Cencrem (Centro Nacional de Conservación y Museología) Havana, Cuba (Bureaucratics)
2006 Kunsthal, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, (The Face of Poverty)

GROUP SHOWS

2010 Festival de la Luz in Buenos Aires (Argentina)
2009 The Art of Photography Show in San Diego, CA (USA)
2009 The Peace Museum in Chicago, IL (USA)
2009 The Angkor Photo Festival in Siem Reap (Cambodia)
2007 The National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh (UK)
2006 The Dorsky Gallery in Long Island, NY (USA)
2006 Noorderlicht in Leeuwarden (The Netherlands)
2005 Fotofestival Naarden (The Netherlands)
2004 World Press Photo exhibition (worldwide)

BOOKS

2010

• Comfort Women/Troostmeisjes (Ipso Facto/Seltmann+Söhne Utrecht/Lüdenscheid)
• Bouwwerk. Mensen maken het museum (limited edition, Rijksmuseum. Assignment by the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)

2008

• Bureaucratics, ed. Martin Parr (Nazraeli Press, Portland, OR)

2007

• Binnen is het donker, buiten is het licht (photo/text book with author Dick Wittenberg: Atlas, Amsterdam)

2005

• Traces of War: Survivors of the Burma and Sumatra Railways (Trolley Books, London)

2003

• Sporen van oorlog. Overlevenden van de Birma- en de Pakanbaroe-spoorweg (Ipso Facto, Utrecht), Dutch version of Traces of War

Selected magazin and newspapers
- ‘M’ Magazine
- The Guardian Weekend
- The Independent
- L’Espresso
- Le Monde
- Liberation