(...) The South-west, from the mouth of the River Seixe to Pedra do Gigante (the Giant´s Stone) before Cape St Vincent. This is my laboratory of emotions. My (wide) workshop. This is where I draft my projects and where the drafts of my ideals are put together. This is where I return whenever I can, until the day when I will return forever. Thoughts that take shape, the shape of childhood memories. «Do you remember, Grandma?: A few tiny fish for dinner!… On the other side of Poça da Rã…» - Images that revive when revisited, that make our options mature and help define the themes of our existence.(...)

João Mariano
In recent years I have been paying special attention to the Portuguese Southwest, specially to the area covered by the St. Vincent Coast. With a coherent documental and also aesthetic intention, I have been developing long photography works on the subsistence activities more deeply rooted in this area, most of which related to the sea: Sea Warriors, 1998 > dedicated to the pluckers of barnacles; Alembics and Alchemists, 1999 > on the distilleries of aguardente de medronho - a strong traditional fruit brandy made with the fruit of medronho tree - (arbutus unedo L.); Uncommon Places, 2000 > more or less subjective landscapes of the St. Vincent Coast ; In-Depth Work, 2001 > on the underwater plucking of algae... in 2010 it was published “Ria de Alvor: stories of a place | Shellfish catchers”. In 2016 I developed the project The Known Unknown, a very personal and subjective approach to the coastline of the municipality of Lagoa ... my most recent project is called Three Hundred Sixty-Six, an essay on time, cycles and unrepeatability.

...I have also been developing (as you may see by the selection of works available on line) several studies and projects that have been exhibited and edited in albums and catalogues. I periodically present my work at conferences and teach through master classes.