João Carlos
works at the intersection of photography, installation, and conceptual practice, using the image as a tool to explore memory, absence, and emotional experience. His work is often rooted in personal and collective narratives, addressing themes such as isolation, identity, mental health, and the psychological spaces we inhabit.
Across long-term projects, João approaches photography not as a purely documentary medium, but as a constructed language. Images are carefully staged, sequenced, and sometimes expanded into sculptural or immersive forms, allowing the work to move beyond representation and into lived experience. His practice is marked by a strong sensitivity to atmosphere, symbolism, and the emotional weight carried by objects, spaces, and gestures
Renaissance Pawtraits — João Carlos
In Renaissance Pawtraits, João Carlos reimagines classical European portraiture by replacing aristocratic sitters with animals, photographed and staged within meticulously constructed historical tableaux. Drawing from Renaissance and Baroque painting traditions, the series adopts the visual language of power, wealth, and nobility, while subtly unsettling its original hierarchies.
By elevating non-human subjects to positions once reserved for elites, Carlos questions how authority, identity, and value are visually constructed. Humour and precision coexist in these portraits, inviting viewers to reflect on the persistence of symbolic representation and on the ways cultural codes of status continue to shape perception today.