Carlos Barradas (Portugal) is a photographer and anthropologist whose work explores ambiguity, memory and identity through the intersection of visual arts and anthropology. Holding a PhD in Anthropology (University of Coimbra), a Master's in Contemporary Photography (IED Madrid), and a Master's in New Documentary Photography (LABASAD Barcelona), his projects address liminality. He sees photographs as vessels for the viewer’s narratives, habitable spaces where memory, emotion, and cultural values shape interpretation. Barradas’ work has been exhibited internationally (Les Rencontres d’Arles, PhotoEspaña, ICP, Encontros da Imagem, ArtVerse Paris, Matèria Gallery Rome, Zero Space Tokyo) and is part of public and private collections, including Galeria Municipal do Porto. He is co-founder of SOPA Magazine, content editor at Lenscratch and has recently founded the artistic residency No Ritmo do Lugar. He is also a lecturer at the University of Design, Innovation and Technology in Madrid.
barradascarlos@gmail.com
Founder No ritmo do lugar
Co-Founder SOPA Magazine
COLLECTIONS
Private Collections
EDUCATION
Máster en Nueva Fotografía Documental, LABASAD Barcelona, 2025.
European Master in Contemporary Photography, Istituto Europeo di Design Madrid, 2020.
PhD in Governance, Knowledge and Innovation by the University of Coimbra, Portugal, 2020.
MsC in Visual Anthropology, University of Coimbra, Portugal, 2010.
Degree in Anthropology, University of Coimbra, Portugal.
EXPERIENCE
2025 - Teacher at UDIT - Universidad de Diseño, Innovación y Tecnología, Madrid, Spain.
2024 - Lecturer at Instituto de Produção Cultural e Imagem.
Since 2020 - Content Editor for LENSCRATCH.
Since 2020 - Co-Founder and co-Editor of SOPA Magazine.
Since 2019 - Photographer for the NGO PROMUNDO Institute. Promundo is a global leader in advancing gender equality and preventing violence by engaging men and boys in partnership with women, girls, and individuals of all gender identities.
Since 2019 - Visual Anthropologist and researcher for URBiNAT – Healthy corridors as drivers of social housing neighborhoods for the co-creation of social, environmental, and marketable Nature-Based Solutions, funded by the European Research Council.
2017/2019 - Photographer and videomaker for the project DECIDE - Disability and self-determination: the challenges of Independent Life.
2013/2018 - Researcher at the project "History of Cancer: actors, scenarios and public policies". Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Brazil.
2010/2013 - Researcher at Harvard Medical School Portugal Program.
WORKSHOPS & LECTURES
2024 - “Portrait Photography”, Instituto de Produção Cultural e Imagem, Porto, Portugal.
2024 - Speaker at the European Association of Social Anthropologists Conference “Doing and Undoing with Anthropology with the paper: “But I don’t want to photograph my neighborhood. It’s ugly!: On self-representation, empathy, and the participatory practices imperative”. Universitat de Barcelona.
2023 - Guest Lecturer, “Navigating the Politics of Photography: Visual Anthropology, Power, and Narratives of Social Change”, Katutura Arts Centre College of the Arts, Windhoek, Namibia.
2023 - “Photography, History, and Freedom: An Exploration of Historic Moments”, Namibian Arts Association, Windhoek, Namibia.
2023 - “A Incompletude para além do fim I”, Porto Cerebral Palsy Association, Portugal.
2023 - “A Incompletude para além do fim II”, Sinergias Project & Central Eléctrica, Portugal.
2023 - Guest Lecturer, “Health, Well-being and Architecture”, University of Porto.
2022 - Speaker, Spring Seminar 2022 - Standing on a Turtle’s Shell - Traumatic Landscapes, School of Arts of the Portuguese Catholic University.
2022 - Guest Lecturer, “Health, Well-being and Architecture”, University of Porto.
2022 - “Oficina de Fotografia”, Centro Cultural Português, São Tomé e Príncipe.
2021 - “Oficina de Fotografia”, Centro Cultural Português, São Tomé e Príncipe.
2021 - Guest Lecturer, Instituto Camões, São Tomé and Príncipe.
2021 - Guest Lecturer, Universidade Lusófona XXIV Audiovisual Week.
EXHIBITIONS, AWARDS & HONORS
2025
Nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2025.
Individual exhibition “À primeira hora” for the Artistic Residency “En el Ritmo del Lugar”. Fundación Caja Badajoz, Badajoz, Spain.
Individual exhibition “À primeira hora” for the Artistic Residency “No Ritmo do Lugar”. Forte da Graça, Elvas, Portugal.
Collective Exhibition “O tempo não espera por mim. Residências artísticas nos Encontros da Imagem”. Encontros da Imagem. Braga, Portugal.
Collective Exhibition “Metamorphosis with the ”Photographic Exploration Project at @noname_lanaturefestival, Belgium.
Collective Exhibition Emosido Engañado, UNED Barbastro / BFoto, Spain.
Collective Exhibition “Salon, O Primeiro”, Subjektiv & ARTROOM, Lisbon, Portugal.
Featured in Der Greif’s Jo. Trujillo Argüelles and María Santoyo "What (Dis)Appears" Guest Room with essay “Image may contain”.
Featured in Der Greif’s KJ Abudu Guest Room “Sounds of Resistance”.
2024
Collective exhibition “You’re innocent in your dreams”. Zero Space Tokyo, Japan. 14-29th September.
Collective exhibition “Art is the primary antidote to the sensual numbness imposed by the automation culture”, Subjektiv Paris Event”, ArtVerse, Paris, France. 5-10th October.
Portfolio Special Mention Urbanautica Journal of Visual Anthropology and Cultural Landscapes Institute Awards 2023.
Selected for SOLAR NIGHT projections at Solar Foto Festival, Fortaleza, Brazil.
Artist in Residence and Individual Exhibition at Bienal de Coruche.
2023
Individual Exhibition “On the exploration of fragmented futures” at Encontros da Imagem. Braga, Portugal.
Selected for Der Greif’s 15th-Anniversary screening at Les Rencontres d’Arles Nuit de L’Année. Arles, France.
Collective Exhibition “Axis of Relating”, Matèria Gallery, Rome, Italy.
Collective exhibition “Veus del Paisatge” (Invited artist), Centre Cultural la Misericòrdia, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Collective Exhibition XYZ Books 10th anniversary “Too much of a good thing” (Invited artis). Lisbon, Portugal.
Selected for Der Greif “Past & Present” Collective 15th Anniversary Exhibition at Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany.
Shortlisted for Photobook Week Aarhus “Our World is Beautiful. Call for artists working with AI for visual storytelling”. Aarhus, Denmark.
Selected for the Call Popular Participation “Pause”, Getxo Photo. Getxo, Spain.
Shortlisted Portfolio “Alima b'ê dê, Naviyu b´ê dê” at Urbanautica Journal of Visual Anthropology and Cultural Landscapes Institute Awards 2021.
Artist in Residence at Encontros da Imagem, Braga, Portugal.
2022
Winner of LABASAD Photo Award at Art Photo BCN Portfolio Reviews. Barcelona, Spain.
Selected for Art Photo BCN Portfolio Reviews.
Winner TIP x Magnum Instagram contest.
Alima b'ê dê, Naviyu b´ê dê Individual Exhibition at the Centro Cultural Português in São Tomé and Príncipe. (Link to media)
Selected for SOLAR NIGHT projections at Solar Foto Festival, Fortaleza, Brazil.
Recipient Criatório Support Scheme for Contemporary Artistic Practice promoted by Porto Municipality.
Featured in Wortimbild Photo Festival’s Photobook “10 years of Word in Pictures, published by Heyn.
Featured in ArtDoc Photography Magazine Issue 1 “The Artivists”.
Selected for the collective exhibition “The urban between reality and utopia”, Rotterdam Photo Festival and Foto em Pauta (Brazil).
Selected for the online collective exhibition Carbon, Voices, Borders.
2021
Selected for the collective exhibition “Subduction Zone”, Podbrzezie Gallery, Krakow, Poland.
Honorable Mention for the Artistic Creation Scholarship of Funchal Municipality, Madeira, Portugal.
Commission for documentary work and workshops at the Portuguese Cultural Centre in São Tomé and Príncipe attributed by Instituto Camões.
Finalist Bienal de Coruche 2021. Coruche, Portugal.
Winner Convocatoria EMERGENTES 2021 Festival BFoto. Barbastro, Spain.
Shortlisted for BarTur Photo Award Human Love.
Shortlisted for XXVI Premios Fundación ENAIRE. Madrid, Spain.
Featured in BOOOOOOOM’s “Magic Hour Book”.
2020
Winner of the Call “Cities in the City” creation and exhibition grant by Bienal Fotografia do Porto’21 and PHotoESPAÑA 2021.
Selected for the Artistic Practice Support Scheme at The Moth House, supported by Arts Council England.
Selected for the collective exhibition #ICPConcerned, International Center of Photography, New York, USA.
Featured in BOOOOOOOM’s book “Small Victories”.
Collective Exhibition Fresh Eyes Photo Fair by GUP Magazine and Haute Photographie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Selected for the In the In-Between Journal Collective Exhibition “The Class of 2020”, juried by Michael Itkoff – Co-Founder, Daylight Books.
Selected for the Deutsche Fotografische Akademie Online Portfolio Walk. Düsseldorf, Germany.
Selected for ArtDoc Photography Magazine Collective Exhibition “New Visions”.
Selected for F-Stop Magazine issue #103 Staying Home Together.
Selected for The South West Collective of Photography Ltd online exhibition ODYSSEY.
Selected for the Open Student Call Noorderlicht Photo Festival 2020: Generation Z. Heerenveen, The Netherlands.
Selected by DOOR Factory for the MIKROS Call Shortlist. Rome, Italy.
Selected for the collective exhibition Fabrica versus Corona by FABRICA Research Centre. Treviso, Italy.
Selected by GUP Magazine for the FRESH EYES book as an emerging European Photography Talent in 2020. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Selected by The Pupil Sphere as one of the ten Spotlight Artists for the Graduate Showcase 2020.
2019
Selected for The British Journal of Photography “Open Walls” collective exhibition, Galerie Huit, Les Rencontres d'Arles | Arles, France.
Merit Scholarship, Recipient, European Master of Contemporary Photography Scholarship, European Design Institute | Madrid, Spain.
2018
Selected for the collective exhibition Fragmentos do Onírico, Foto em Pauta, Tiradentes Photography Festival | Tiradentes, Brasil.
Selected for the Solar Night Projections, Solar Foto Festival | Fortaleza, Brasil.
Selected for the Humble Arts Foundation collective exhibition Winter Pictures | USA.
Honourable Mention FNAC Portugal New Talents in Photography Award | Portugal.
Finalist TransEurope Photo | Spain.
Finalist for the Portfolio Walk of the Deutsche Fotografische Akademie annual conference, Dusseldorf | Germany.
2015
Merit Scholarship Recipient at the School of Visual Arts - Parque Lage, in Rio de Janeiro.