Luísa Ferreira

The city and its inhabitants are central to her photographic practice, which is informed by a sustained social and political awareness of contemporary life. Her gaze combines a sense of wonder with a documentary sensibility, resulting in images that are at once precise and dreamlike, and in sensitive, singular observations of moments, places, and atmospheres.

In 2025 and 2019, Ferreira received the Visual Arts Award from the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA) for her exhibitions Intimidade (Casa da Avenida) and branco (Galeria Monumental), respectively. Her recent exhibitions include Uma Nova História, curated by David Willis, Sá da Costa Arte, 2026; Um cão que sonha — Agustina, Mira Galerias, 2025; Loreto, SNBA, 2022; and A Ciência Cura, curated by David Santos, Museu do Neo-Realismo, 2022–2023.

In 2009, she participated in Au Féminin. Women Photographing Women 1849–2009, curated by Jorge Calado at the Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian in Paris.

Among the most significant exhibitions of the early stages of her career were Matérias, presented at the Museu de História Natural in 1992, and Os objectos já não têm cores / mas as sombras dos objectos têm as cores deles / um amigo meu / que tem a chave das docas / também pensa assim (Picabia), an installation presented inside containers at Armazém AB, next to Jardim do Tabaco, Porto de Lisboa, in 1993.

Her publications include Matérias (XYZ Books, 2022); A Ciência Cura: o conhecimento no combate à covid-19 em Portugal (março–junho 2020) (INCM / FCT / MCTES, 2021); and Atelier 13, published as part of the Kioskzine collection (No. 7, 2023).

In 2025, her Polaroids were used as interstitials on RTP2, the Portuguese public television channel, between 1 February and 8 October.

www.luisaferreira.com