Bertien van Manen started her career as a fashion photographer after having studied French and German languages and literature. Inspired by Robert Frank's "The Americans" she travelled to Budapest and New York, photographing what she saw. She  had her first exhibition in the Photographers Gallery in London in 1977.

Van Manen worked on projects such as 'A Hundred Summers a Hundred Winters', photographs taken in the ex-Soviet Union, 'East Wind West Wind', made in China and 'Give me your Image' in Europe. These projects resulted in photo-albums and exhibitions all over the world. They were rewarded with numerous prizes.

In October 2011 a new book, 'Let's Sit Down Before We Go' was edited by Stephen Gill and published by Mack London, with images made in former Soviet Republics. There will be exhibitions of this work in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris and New York.

Van Manen's photographs are in the collections of, amongst others: La Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris,  Fotomuseum Winterthur, Stedelijk Museum,  Amsterdam; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; SF Moma, San Francisco, The Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo; Centre National des arts Plastiques, Paris; The Baltimore Museum of Art and la Salle, Chicago.