With a career spanning decades Derksen has built up an impressive oeuvre. His ability to capture the essence of the moment, combined with his view of the world, has resulted in an extraordinary portfolio.  

His latest published book Kairos marks an important milestone in that oeuvre. It is a collection of 88 carefully selected black-and-white photographs from work shot on medium-format film between 1997 and 2007. The images were taken in various locations such as China, India, Italy, Egypt, Romania, Mexico, Thailand, Syria, the Ukraine and Russia. 

This selection - as yet unpublished - represents not only an artistic choice, but also an important moment for Derksen: it is the last series of black-and-white photographs taken in the analogue era before his switch to digital colour photography. Exploring the possibilities of digital photography resulted in his first publication in colour, Disneyfication. That book, listed among the 10 best Dutch photo books by De Volkskrant in 2019, marked a new phase in his photographic approach.

Theo Derksen trained in architectural engineering for four years, worked as a planning draughtsman for some time and then studied photography and audiovisual design at St. Joost in Breda. He started his career as an intern with Magnum photographer Ernst Haas. His work soon gained recognition, nationally and internationally, resulting in exhibitions, publications and awards such as the Kodak Award and the Dunhill Award. He was also supported by Polaroid, Kodak, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, the Province of Limburg and others. His work is included in several collections worldwide.

In addition Derksen has contributed to photography education. For 25 years he was a part-time head lecturer of photography and research at the Maastricht Institute of Arts where he later joined the management team of the Visual Communication and Media Design & Technology departments. Derksen was also a visiting professor at several European educational institutions.