Jacqueline Hassink was born in 1966 in Enschede, the Netherlands. Following studies at the Royal Art Academy of the Hague, she graduated from the Art Academy of Trondheim, Norway, in 1992, majoring in sculpture. Now based in New York, she is best known for her global photo art projects that deal with the world of economic power. The work represents visual, graphic, and sociological maps of the axes of global economic structures. She also has a related interest in the identity of a space and what defines the private and public realms.
Her first art project, The Table of Power (1993–95), was soon followed by other projects such as Female Power Stations: Queen Bees (1996–2000), Mindscapes (1998-2003), Car Girls (2002-08), Arab Domains (2005–06), The Table of Power 2 (2009–11), and View, Kyoto (2004–14).
Her work has been widely collected and exhibited, including shows at Huis Marseille in Amsterdam; Fotomuseum Winterthur; International Center of Photography in New York and the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego; Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto; The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum for Photography; the Saatchi Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris; Bologna Museum of Modern Art; the Guangzhou Museum of Modern Art; Istanbul Modern, Museum Folkwang, Essen and the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi.
Hassink has lectured at Harvard University in conceptual photography and at the International Center for Photography in New York. She also has taught in Norway, Canada, China, UK, Finland, Holland, Switzerland, South Africa and Japan.
She is the winner of the Rencontres d’Arles 2002 Unlimited Award and the Dutch Doc Award 2013. She was shortlisted for Prix Pictet 2012 (Power), one of the most prestigious photography prizes in the world. She was longlisted for Prix Pictet 2010 (Growth) and 2013 (Consumption). In 2013 she was shortlisted for the Henri Cartier Bresson Award. Her book The Table of Power 2 was shortlisted for the 2012 Paris Photo/ Aperture Book Award. That same year the book received a second place on the PHotoEspaña Best Photography Book of the Year Award. Her recent book View, Kyoto won the Silver German Photography Book prize 2015.
Hassink’s work has appeared in The Financial Times, Le Monde, The New York Times, El Pais, Frankfurter Allgemeine, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Reuters, De Standaard, NZZ, Newsweek, Fortune, Wired and more.