Sanne Derks

Photojournalist & anthropologist

This week a beautiful publication of my long-term project Rutopia – supported by the National Geographic Society and Matchingsfonds de Coöperatie - came out in the Washington Post. In this project I documented how people want to bring abandoned villages back to life. In search for a sustainable world and a small ecological footprint, people move back to ruin-villages to start a new...

In collaboration with Portugese journalist Ricardo Rodriguez and Spanish journalist Juan Calleja, we were granted the Earth Investigative Grant by the European Journalism Fund for cross-border project on the impact of the decline of insects on local economies. Next week we will embark on a first reporting trip in Spain and Portugal.

So glad to see my work published in 18 pages in the Dutch edition of National Geographic Magazine. In this project I documented the repopulation of abandoned villages in rural Spain and investigated how people try to create ‘utopian’ mini-societies in search for a sustainable future. I have been working on the project for the past 1,5 year during the pandemic with the support of...

The National Geographhic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration has awarded me a grant to continue my project 'Rutopia' on the repopulation of abandoned ruin villages in northern Spain. Increased climate change awareness has resulted in a revaluation of rural areas, which has been given an extra boost by the current Covid-crisis. In this project I will be documenting life...

An Inside Look at Cuba’s Constant Struggle for Clean Water Across the country, battling water scarcity requires a vast array of workers, from inspectors and fumigators to truck drivers and pipe layers. Incredibly delighted to announce that the New York Times published my long-term project Manifiesto del Agua on Cuba’s daily water struggle. The project has finally...

The Globe and Mail published my work on climate change resilience in the informal impoverished settlements of Guayaquil, the largest city of Ecuador and in high risk of climate change disaster. I shot this story in 2019 in collaboration with Care Netherlands and the department of risk management in the municipality of Guayaquil. It focuses on how citizens are preparing for natural disasters....

In January I was assigned several times to cover the Dutch anti-curfew protests. I worked with Getty Images, Deutsche Welle and Contacto, leading to several publications, among others in the Washington Post and Portuguese Publico. 

I am thrilled to announce that I have won the EAW National Geographic Award during the Eddie Adams Workshop 2020. The award is given to one of the hundred selected participants of the workshop to recognize their commitment to both the values of the Eddie Adam's legacy and their passion for their projects. Being selected for the Eddie Adams Workshop was already an extreme honour in itself....

While at Visa I had the honour to be part of an amazing jury, consisting of five women photographers, to judge the best story published in daily press last year. The jury included Nicole Tung, Sarah Caron, Elena Chernychova, Emilienne Malfratto and me. The Visa d'Or Daily Press goes to Rosem Morton, who published her project on rape with CNN. 

My series 'Volunteers, the forgotten heroes of the pandemic' is exhibited at Museum Hilversum in the Netherlands, from the 2nd of October until the 8th of November. The works was assigned by Museum Hilversum and Stichting de Zilveren Camera. Three photographers were selected to produce a body of work on the theme 'The Backside of the city of Hilversum'. My proposal on how...

Manifiesto del Agua, my long term project on how the right for clean drinking water is managed in communist Cuba, is among the 17 selected projects -out of more than 4000 entries- that was exhibited at Visa Pour l'Image 2020. From the 28th of August until the 27th of September the work was exhibited in the church L'Eglise des Dominicains in Perpignan, France. It was an absolute...

Fotos: Los vecinos más resistentes de Guayaquil Así trabajan los comités en los barrios de la ciudad ecuatoriana donde la población más vulnerable hace frente a las catástrofes naturales y aprende la manera de reaccionar en caso de emergencia

Super excited to be one of the 110 lucky ones to be selected for the New York Portfolio Reviews 2020, hosted by the New York Times, United Photo Industries and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York in March. It is such a huge honour and I am so much looking forward to it! 

Super glad to announce that soon I will be working on a new project 'Emission Zero', on citizen-driven responses to climate change in Europe, together with multi-media journalist Ana Gonzalez. Our proposal for the Reporters in the Field Grant has been selected by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and N-Ost for funding. By the end of November we are invited to Berlin for a cross-border...

Last week Internazionale published an article on Cuba's current crisis, illustrated by two of my photographs. The article, written by Jon Lee Anderson, first appeared in English in the New Yorker. It addresses attention to the overlooked story of Cuba, that is experiencing several shortages and difficulties because of sanctions of the Trump Administration.