The artists nominated by

Bienal Fotografia do Porto
in
2022

Since 2015, young Portuguese photographer and storyteller Maria João Salgado has focused primarily on documentary photography, developing projects on human rights and alternative living communities. Recently, her work has taken on an increasingly artistic approach, incorporating personal themes for the first time.

Carlos Trancoso lives and works in Porto. His work uses photography as a means to explore the way humans relate to technology, combining fictional and documentary approaches in a compelling photographic language.

Born on the island of Madeira, Nuno Serrão is a photographer and filmmaker whose work is informed by dialogues between science and contemporary art. We hope that his participation in FUTURES will further strengthen his aesthetic approach and critical outlook across future projects.

Sviatlana Stankevich is a Belarusian photographer working with documentary and conceptual photography. Her work focuses on cultures of remembrance and history, with projects covering everything from mass shootings by Soviet authorities to the Chernobyl disaster.

Emergent Ukrainian photographer Xenia Petrovska is based in Kyiv. Her works are rooted in the mysterious and surreal realities, however there are some indirect social contexts. Through FUTURES, we believe Petrovska can build upon the conceptual bases of her projects.

Since 2015, young Portuguese photographer and storyteller Maria João Salgado has focused primarily on documentary photography, developing projects on human rights and alternative living communities. Recently, her work has taken on an increasingly artistic approach, incorporating personal themes for the first time.

Carlos Trancoso lives and works in Porto. His work uses photography as a means to explore the way humans relate to technology, combining fictional and documentary approaches in a compelling photographic language.

Born on the island of Madeira, Nuno Serrão is a photographer and filmmaker whose work is informed by dialogues between science and contemporary art. We hope that his participation in FUTURES will further strengthen his aesthetic approach and critical outlook across future projects.

Sviatlana Stankevich is a Belarusian photographer working with documentary and conceptual photography. Her work focuses on cultures of remembrance and history, with projects covering everything from mass shootings by Soviet authorities to the Chernobyl disaster.

Emergent Ukrainian photographer Xenia Petrovska is based in Kyiv. Her works are rooted in the mysterious and surreal realities, however there are some indirect social contexts. Through FUTURES, we believe Petrovska can build upon the conceptual bases of her projects.

Projects nominations
Carlos
Carlos Trancoso, a portuguese visual artist based in Porto, uses the photographic gaze in a critical perspective on the way the human being relates to technology. His work aims to challenge established patterns of both interaction and creation of images in contemporary society. Although he uses fictional approaches, his work intermingles with a documental photography language, creating cameraless images, mixed media and computer generated images. He is a founding member of Barda collective, which utilizes visual arts to foster social cohesion. He has exhibited at festivals such as Photoalicante, Backlight (2020), Photo Open Up, f/est Amarante (2022), Athens Digital Arts Festival (2023), Bienal da Maia (2021/2023) and Bienal de Fotografia do Porto (2025) . His works have also been exhibited in spaces such as Galeria FFAC, Galeria Dentro and MIRA FORUM in Porto, Casa do Capitão and XYZ Books in Lisbon and El Local in Madrid.
Artist
Maria João Salgado

Maria João Salgado, was born in Portugal, in 1992 and has studied at the Portuguese Institute of Photography (IPF) and at Institute of Cultural and Artistic Production (IPCI) in Porto. Since 2015 she has been focusing on Documental Photography, mainly developing projects on human rights and alternative living communities. Currently, she is focusing on a more artistic approach, developing themes on personal issues.

Nuno Serrão
Nuno Alexandre Serrão is a Portuguese photographer and director whose work explores the relationship between natural landscapes and human-made structures, combining cinematic formalism and raw storytelling. Led by curiosity, he often creates or documents non-linear narratives about uncomfortable and ambiguous topics that challenge comfort zones and encourage reflection, ultimately provoking questions about what is fundamental or emergent. His work has gained international attention, and is published in established media outlets like HuffPost, Público, Expresso, L’Hémcycle, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and GQ. It has also been exhibited in cultural institutions such as Fotogalerie Friedrichshain in Berlin, ImageNation in Milan, ArtIcon in Paris, and the National Museum of Finland. His short films and commercial projects have been recognized at festivals like Aesthetica, Caminhos do Cinema Português, FUSO, and Inshadow Festival. Critics describe Serrão’s work as ‘pursuing the beauty that emerges at the intersection of nature and humanity’ (Ana Marques Maia, Público, 2024). Claire Ducresson-Boët describes his landscapes as ‘places of passage and transition where time seems to stand still, offering a moment of quietness before life resumes.’
Artist
Sviatlana Stankevich

A belarusian photographer working with documentary and conceptual photography. Graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of the Belarusian State University шт Minsk. Graduate of the Academy of Documentary Photography and Photojournalism “Photographics”, St. Petersburg, Russia. Scholar of Gaude polonia fellowship supporting the Ministry of Culture of Poland. Participant of personal and group exhibitions in Belarus, Lithuania, Georgia? Russia, Poland. Publications: Bird in Flight, F-Stop Magazine, Takiedela.ru, republic.ru, Private, SEEN Magazine.


In my work I focus on the theme of the culture of remembrance; I worked on projects about the place of mass shootings near Minsk by the Soviet authorities in the 30s and 40s, and about the liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster as a reclaimed material of the tragedy and the consequences of building a new nuclear power plant with Russian loans. I use digital and analogue photography, as well as collages and archive photos. In early drafts talked about personal transformation. I lived in Minsk, work as a journalist for a Belarusian portal Reform.by, had to leave Belarus in 2021 and currently live in Poland. Here I continue my journalistic work and at the same time shoot a project about forced migration, using my family, which was split up in 1939, as an example. My project deals with private and general questions: about the particular "homelessness" of people from traumatic periods of history and attempts to get rid of this feeling, about the sensitivity of entire nations as a result of political decisions, about the problems of self-identity, about the search for home.

Artist
Xenia Petrovska

Xenia Petrovska (b. 1988) is a photographer based in Kyiv, Ukraine. She studied at the MYPH art school and at the Kyiv School of Photography. Xenia's works are rooted in the mysterious and even slightly surreal atmospheres created by light and color. She took part in numerous group exhibitions in Ukraine in Europe. Xenia was selected as a Fresh Eyes European talent 2021 by GUP Magazine. Member of Ukrainian Women Photographers Organisation.