Mads Nissen is a Danish documentary photographer, born in 1979 and based in Copenhagen. He is a staff photographer at the Danish newspaper Politiken and a member of Panos Pictures. For him, photography is about empathy: creating understanding and intimacy around issues such as inequality, human rights and the lack of global responsibility.
He has received World Press Photo’s main prize three times, in 2015, 2021 and 2023, and his work has won more than 100 international awards. His earlier books include The Fallen, Amazonas and We Are Indestructible, about the Colombian civil war.
In our 2026 interview he spoke about Sangre Blanca, his book about the cocaine trade, made over almost ten years in ten countries. “Giving up is not a privilege we have,” he said.
