Baan grew up outside Amsterdam, studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and worked in publishing and documentary photography in New York and Europe. He frequently collaborates on books, and has worked with SANAA Studios, the Porsche Museum, and Steven Holl's Knut Hamsun Museum; his most recent volume is Brasilia–Chandigarh: Living With Modernity (Lars Müller Publishers). Upcoming projects include a book with the Benesse Foundation on the Setouchi Islands in Japan (Lars Müller Publishers), and No More Play, with Michael Maltzan and the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture (Hatje Cantz). Baan's images frequently appear in the New York Times, Domus, Abitare, and the New Yorker, among other publications.