JJasper Juinen is a Dutch photographer who as a twelve year old developed his first films in a self built darkroom occupying the entire bathroom of his parental home. After leaving school prematurely he soon exchanged his side job at a one-hour photo lab for a traineeship at Reuters, which would turn out being merely the beginning of his internationally flourishing career. Five years after this professional kick-start, Jasper joined the Dutch national press agency ANP as a staff photographer. Five years of news and sports photography were to follow, after which he was offered the position of chief photographer at Associated Press in Madrid. In 2008 he changed course to establish the Spanish branch of Getty Images – a chapter he finished in 2013. Back in the Netherlands he currently operates as an independent photojournalist with a focus on documentary photography. Instead of staging the ideal, Jasper aims to register reality by observing society from a somewhat distant perspective. His unique view on everyday episodes results from his resistance to all forms of habituation, which enables him to capture moments gone unnoticed by their majority of attendees. By pragmatically extracting a scene’s essence he eliminates all visual aspects not contributing to the bigger picture. His photographs characterize themselves by a sense of aesthetics that prefers authenticity above perfection. Jasper’s work has been internationally praised and awarded, and he works on a regular basis for Bloomberg News, The New York Times, Het Financieel Dagblad, NRC Handelsblad, Alex van Groningen Events and Goedendoelen- loterijen.
Photo reportage commissioned by The New York Times on how the Dutch, like many people elsewhere, are living longer, often alone. As they do, courses that teach them not only how to avoid falling, but how to fall correctly, are gaining popularity. This one, called Vallen Verleden Tijd course, roughly translates as “Falling is in the past.” Falling for the older adults can be a serious thing. Aging causes the bones to get brittle, and broken ones do not heal as readily. Across the Netherlands, 3,884 people over the age of 65 died as result of a fall in 2016, and 96,200 required emergency medical care because of one. The number of fatalities rose 38 percent from just three years ago. Experts say the rise could reflect the overall aging of the population, but also factors such as the growing use of certain medications or general inactivity.
A photo reportage commissioned by Getty Images in the small village of Santa Marta de Ribarteme, where every year one of the most curious pilgrimages in Spain is held. Starting after a mass at the village's parish church, believers grateful for the miracle of being saved from death go on a pilgrimage in a procession of coffins. Carried by friends and relatives and while 'Virgin Santa Martha, star of the North, we bring you those who saw death' is song out loud, the pilgrim’s process from the cemetery back to the church to round it together with the parish church statue of Saint Marta de Ribarteme, the patron Saint of resurrection.
Photo reportage commissioned by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad and Open Society Foundations on Villacañas where everything is different now from then 10 years ago when the village in the arid plain under Madrid was part of Spain’s middle class, enjoying high wages and permanent jobs. Within one generation, from the 80's to 2006, Villacañas grew to a small bustling industry town. During these construction boom years the majority of the doors used within the newly built developments in Spain were made in Villacañas. Approximately seven million doors a year employing a workforce of almost 5,700 people in the many factories. Until the housing bubble burst and no one needed a new door. Villacañas is typical for many former buoyant industrial Spanish towns, continuing to struggle with high levels of long-term unemployment.