Ernst Coppejans graduated from the Photo Academy Amsterdam after a career in product design, and has been working as a portrait photographer since. In addition to his commissioned projects, he works on personal projects and concepts. With his photographic series, he conveys stories he feels need to be told. He is fascinated by people, the lives they live and the choices they make. Coppejans’s concepts emerge from his own experiences and curiosity about the lives of seemingly ordinary and extraordinary people. The strength of the underdog is a central theme in his work. His work has been showcased at Unseen and in the Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam), Museum de Fundatie (Zwolle), art fairs in Basel, Miami and San Francisco and at photo festival Cortona On The Move, Italy (solo 2018). Coppejans has won several awards for his portraits, including a Silver Camera Award, twice. His series 'sold' - portraits of victims of human trafficking - won 1st place in the 2020 LensCulture Portrait Awards.
SOLD is a series of 27 anonymous portraits of victims of human trafficking in the Netherlands — each with their own harrowing story of capture, abuse, escape, and hopefully, a better future.
