Johan Rydeng Spanner was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1974. He was conscripted into the Danish Army and served two terms in the former Yugoslavia as a peacekeeper. He later studied photography at K.U.B.A. in Copenhagen before moving to New York to study at the International Center of Photography. Spanner has covered conflicts in Kosovo, Haiti, Darfur and Iraq. His pictures have appeared in publications in Europe and the United States.