2001 Professional Winner

Jan Dago was born and grew up in Denmark, and it was here during his childhood that his interest in visual expression began. At first making short movies.

The power of the still image however, proved more exciting and as a result photojournalism, particularly exploring the human aspect in a story, became his main interest.

During the 1980’s Jan taught himself the art of photography whilst working at a variety of jobs from serving in a camera shop to cleaning slaughter houses at night.

In 1990 Jan began full time employment as a photographer on a newspaper and spent the next five years there. In 1994 he branched out into freelance photography so that he could concentrate on doing more in depth projects.

Some of these photo projects and assignments have taken several years. Others have only taken a few weeks or even days. Jan have worked in Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Cuba, Denmark, Egypt, Indonesia, Liberia, Macedonia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Zaire and Zimbabwe.

He has received three Awards from The World Press Photo during his career and his work has been published in many international magazines.

Today Jan is employed on ”Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten”, the major newspaper of Denmark, where his work involves a variety of assignments both in Denmark and abroad.