born in 1958 in Hasselt, Belgium, Jo Voets lives and works in Brussels since 1985. As a photographer, he is an autodidact. Not exactly knowing what to do after dropping out of law school, he worked as a garden furniture salesman, on a brewery production line, as a bartender, (truck)driver and movie electrician. He discovers photography when his youngest sister starts studying at the Sint-Lukas Academy of Arts in Brussels. In 1992 he is invited to do the still-photography for an underground movie in New York.
During the same trip, he produces his first photo-essay, photographing New York’s homeless. Meeting Magnum-photographer Larry Towell on a later trip, he is encouraged to continue with photography. The rage felt when confronted with social injustice, combined with a deeply-rooted empathy for the underdog and his love for photography, have driven him ever since. In 2005, Jo Voets held his first solo exhibition in Brussels. Among his favourite books he counts ‘Le petit prince’ – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and ‘Sleeping with ghosts’ – Don McCullin.