Jimmy Kets is a press photographer and lives in Ghent (Belgium).
In Antwerp, he studied Illustrative Design at Sint Lucas University College. In 2001, he began working as a freelancer for the newspaper De Morgen, which he left in early 2009 to join De Standaard. His photographs have appeared in Knack, HUMO, Trends, NRC Handelsblad, De Volkskrant and others... and are distributed worldwide via the Reporters photo agency. He has won numerous awards, including the Nikon Promising Young Photographer Award in 2006 and 2008, the Canvas Prize for ‘De film van mijn leven’ in 2007, the VVJ Photojournalism Prize in 2007, and the SABAM prize for the most humorous press photograph twice, in 2006 and 2007.
His CV features a long list of exhibitions, including those at the Antwerp Photo Museum, BOZAR in Brussels and the Flanders Centre in Japan, as well as various galleries.
Alongside his newspaper work, Kets pursues his own projects, which allow him to fully develop his style and vision. He is the amused outsider. With great humour and an eye for detail, he shows us the little things that make us human. He highlights the humour, both intended and unintentional, in people’s lives, but also the emptiness of existence.
He has already published two books at a young age. His personal work is collected in the book Brightside (Ludion), while the series he created on traditional pubs in Flanders is collected in Volkscafés – Vrouwentongen & Mannenpraat (Davidsfonds).
He won the Nikon Promising Young Photographer Award in 2008 for his publication Volkscafés.
