Through long-term documentary projects Karine Zenja Versluis explores how people deal with their identity, culture and the society in which they live, and how it influences their daily life. 

Photography is the starting point, but each story develops its own creative form, combined with text, sound, moving images or found footage. Karine is interested in participatory ways of storytelling that allow different perspectives to exist alongside one another. She values presenting her work to diverse audiences and contexts.

Based in Amsterdam but growing up in the Dutch village of Staphorst, Karine became aware at an early age of the influence that tradition, faith and community can have on the individual and the collective. But also the stereotypes that the media created about the village. Her Ukrainian roots let her to question ideas about belonging and the impact of unspoken histories. These experiences still influence how she looks at the world today and the stories she chooses to tell.

Karine is the author of three photobooks: Staphorst, Enkeltje Schiphol and her latest publication Debaltsevo, Where Are You? about the search for her Ukrainian roots. The book was nominated for the Book Awards 2023 of Les Rencontres d’Arles (FR) and was selected among the top 10 most beautiful Dutch photobooks of 2023 by NRC and de Volkskrant.

Karine is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. Work has been exhibited at the EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam, FOTODOK Utrecht, Fotomuseum Den Haag, Framer Framed Amsterdam, Noorderlicht Fotofestival Groningen, Kolga Tbilisi Photo (GE), Lagos Photofestival (NG), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam amongst others. Besides her documentary projects, Karine is an experienced trainer in photovoice and works as a social worker in youth mental health care.

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