Mário Pires
Bio & CV
Mário Pires (b. 1960, Lisbon) has been working with the photographic image since 1984. He lives and works in Lisbon, across photography — digital and analogue — as well as video, calligraphy and music.
His long-term projects read the city as a living, mutating organism, returning to memory, decay and renewal, to the feminine figure as muse, and to the layered histories embedded in place. Bodies of work such as Bleak City, Chiado Seven Visions, Belém – Trafaria and Flora Arcana treat the urban and the human as palimpsests — surfaces continuously rewritten by those who pass through them.
Over four decades he has exhibited and published in Portugal and internationally, with recent work appearing in Tokyo (Anarchy°1, 2023; Bleak City, ephemere, 2024). He was the official photographer of Festival Músicas do Mundo (Sines) from 2005 to 2025.
Solo Exhibitions
2025 — Bleak City, Atelier Mestres 1A, Lisbon
2025 — Book Loving Girls, Festival Folio, Óbidos
2024 — Bleak City, ephemere gallery, Tokyo
2024 — Book Loving Girls, Centro de Artes, Sines
2023 — Flora Arcana, Auditório Augusto Cabrita, Barreiro
2022 — Flora Arcana, Lapso Galeria, Setúbal
2022 — Flora Arcana, Galeria N118, Alpiarça
2018 — Book Loving Girls, Biblioteca Municipal, Torres Vedras
2017 — Festival de Músicas do Mundo de Sines – 20 anos, Cinema São Jorge, Lisbon
2017 — Book Loving Girls (travelling exhibition), FNAC Gallery, Cascais
2013 — Retratos Rápidos, Teatro Rápido, Lisbon
2011 — 7 Visões no Chiado, Casa da Esquina, Coimbra
2011 — 7 Visões no Chiado, ESEC, Coimbra
2010 — 7 Visões no Chiado, LiberOffice, Lisbon
2001 — Olhares, Laboratório Digital Carlos Vilas, Lisbon
1991 — Cacilheiros, Fotogaleria 12A, Lisbon
Group Exhibitions
2023 — Amostra 23, Espaço Nowhere, Lisbon
2020 — Sem Limites — SOS Arte Pt (online exhibition)
2012 — Casa — The Portfolio Project, Casa da Esquina, Coimbra
2011 — The Portfolio Project, Fábrica Braço de Prata, Lisbon
2005 — World Music, Capela da Misericórdia, Sines
2003 — Covers — BZK Group, Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Lisbon
2001 — foto@pt, Beja
2001 — foto@pt, Almada
1994 — Trans / Casa de Passagem, Covilhã
1989 — 1ª Bienal de Fotografia, Vila Franca de Xira
Publications
2024 — Bleak City (ephemere, Tokyo)
2023 — Anarchy°1 (ephemere, Tokyo)
2023 — Bleak City (self-published, Lisbon)
2022 — FMM 2019 (self-published, Lisbon)
2021 — MONOMANIA LOVE in a Pandemic (ERIN CROSS Publication, Tokyo)
2020 — Sem Limites, exhibition catalogue (Associação SOS Arte Pt, Maia)
2006 — Arte na Planície, exhibition catalogue (Associação Cultural Arte na Planície, Montemor-o-Novo)
2005 — 28MM:offline (28MM.org, Ravenstein)
2001 — Fotografia em português – foto@pt (Gótica, Lisbon) — organising team and technical consultant
1994 — Trans / Casa de Passagem, exhibition catalogue (self-published, Lisbon) — catalogue design by the author
1989 — 1ª Bienal de Fotografia de Vila Franca de Xira, exhibition catalogue (Câmara Municipal de Vila Franca de Xira)
1988 — Anuário Português de Fotografia 1988 (Foto Jornal, Lisbon)
Press & Interviews
2023 — “Visualizing Urban Despair”, ephemere, Tokyo — https://www.ephemere.tokyo/journal/mario-pires
2020 — “S2E5 – Art SideTalk” (YouTube) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Rswjs7FGPU
Videography
2020 — Into the Woods, 6'46" (YouTube)
2013 — Curtas de Teatro: um ano de Teatro Rápido em Lisboa (with Joana Rita Sousa), 45' (DVD)
1994 — Trans / Casa de Passagem, 20' (S-VHS)
Professional / Audiovisual Work
2023 — Official photographer, TEDx Lisbon
2022–present — Associated author, Atelier Pop-Up
2014–2018 — Author, Musicfest.pt
2014–2015 — Co-founder, ColabArt (art group)
2012–2016 — Member, The Portfolio Project (photo collective)
2012–2014 — Photographer, Teatro Rápido
2011 — Official photographer, TEDxPorto
2010–2016 — Official photographer, Ignite Portugal
2005–2025 — Official photographer, Festival Músicas do Mundo (Sines)
2003–2004 — Co-founder, BZK Group (photo collective)
1991–2000 — Official photographer, Adrenalina Organizações Desportivas