José M. Rodrigues

José M. Rodrigues was born is Lisbon in 1951. He spent his childhood and most of his early adulthood in Évora, until leaving for Paris in 1968. He moved to Holland in 1970. Having returned to Portugal in 1993, he now lives and works in Évora.

He studied photography at the School voor Fotografie, in The Hague (1975-80), and at the Foto Vakschool in Apeldoorn. He completed an internship in scientific photography at the Leiden University of Medicine (1977-78). In 1990 he concluded the course of video techniques at the Sandberg Instituut, Holland.

He was co-founder of the “Perspektiev” association in Rotterdam, where he also took charge of the gallery’s exhibition program. He is a member of the GKF/Dutch Photographer's Association, and a former member of the Amsterdamse Kunstraad (the Amsterdam Council for the Arts), between 1987 and 1992.

In 1982 he was awarded the Vrije Creatieve Opdracht Prijs (Creative photography Award) from the Amsterdamse Kunstraad. In 1999 he received the prestigious Pessoa Award for his collected oeuvre and his contribution to the arts in Portugal.

The retrospective solo exhibition entitled “Ofertório – Retrospectiva 1972-1997”, curated by Jorge Calado, that took place at Culturgest in Lisbon, (1999) is one of the highlights of his career.

José M. Rodrigues' photographs are represented in various Portuguese and foreign art collections, such as the collection of the Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Lisbon; the portuguese National Photography Collection/CPF, Porto; the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art Collection, Porto; the B.E.S. Collection, Lisbon; the PMLJ Collection, Lisbon; the Visual Arts Centre Collection, Coimbra; the Leiden Prentenkabinet Collection, Leiden; Museum Arnhem Collection; the Bibliothèque National Collection,Paris.