Chris Keulen

photographer · author

Chris Keulen is a Dutch documentary photographer based in Maastricht. He studied Visual Arts at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague and Dutch literature at the University of Nijmegen. His work often focuses on long-term projects that explore everyday life, social documents, and neglected hinterlands both in the Netherlands and internationally. Notable themes in his photography include cycling races in Africa (specifically Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Senegal, and Cameroon), human rights issues in Rwanda and the DRC, and the surrealism of border regions like the Meuse-Rhine Euregion. He has received numerous awards, including eleven Zilveren Camera Awards and two World Press Photo Awards. Since 2022, he has served as a lecturer at the Arts Academy in Maastricht.[1,2,3]

Themes

  • documentary photography
  • cycling races
  • human rights
  • social documents
  • surrealism

Works by Chris Keulen

  • Hete glassplinters; le tour d’Afrique 2008 · Ipso Facto · book · Dutch, French ISBN 9789077386057 Co-authored with P. Winnen.
  • Rwanda, land zonder horizon 1997 · L.J. Veen · book · Dutch
  • Chez Nous 2013 · self-published · book · Dutch
  • Silent Song 2025 · self-published · book · Dutch

Exhibitions

  • 2025 Silent Song Bureau Europa, Maastricht solo
  • 2022 Tour d’Afrique Alden Biesen solo
  • 2022 Traversées museum Niederrhein, Wesel group
  • 2015 Chez Nous CCHA, Hasselt solo

Awards

  • 2018 Zilveren Camera (overall)
  • 2022 Zilveren Camera (international news)
  • 2000 World Press Photo Award (sport-series) World Press Photo
  • 2011 World Press Photo Award (series) World Press Photo

References

  1. 2025 link
  2. World Press Photo link
  3. Noorderlicht link