About

Jens Schott Knudsen is a Danish photographer and lawyer based in Beijing. Born in the small town of Haderslev, Jens grew up on a farm in the Danish countryside. His interest in photography was sparked by his father’s travels as a young man in the United States and Greenland and the thousands of pictures he took along the way. In the past ten years, Jens lived in 10 different cities on 3 continents—experiences that have provided rich storyboards for his photography.

“A stranger at first, I would eventually make each new city my home. I have found that being an insider and outsider at the same time has enabled me to notice stories and beauty in the otherwise mundane—like the the morning light on the back of a scruffy worker or the dreamy look on the face of a subway worker at rush hour. In that way, I seek to extract extraordinary stories from ordinary and familiar situations.”

While maintaining a career as a corporate lawyer, Jens has used photography as his creative outlet and has honed his skills as a photographer whenever possible. While living in New York, he covered live concerts for Time Out and news events for Talking Points Memo. In the last three years, he has made Beijing his home, working for an international law firm. As a photographer, he has collaborated with historians and urban planners to document Beijing’s rapid changes. The city’s history and its contrasts between the old and new continue to serve as an inspiring platform for his photography. 

Jens’ work has been featured by several news outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, and CNBC. He is also a contributor to Getty Images.

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