José Manuel Rodrigues


José M. Rodrigues, born as José Manuel dos Santos Rodrigues, is a contemporary Portuguese-Dutch photographer and visual artist. He lives and works since 1993 in Évora, Portugal, after more than twenty years living and working in the Netherlands.

Life and work

Born in Portugal and raised in turbulent times under the rule of António de Oliveira Salazar, Rodrigues fled abroad in 1968 when all the men had to fight in the army to retain Angola and Moçambique as colonies of Portugal.He lived in Paris, France, in 1968/1969, and in the Netherlands between 1969 and 1993. He studied photography in the Netherlands, in The Hague and in Apeldoorn, at De School voor Fotografie, and took a video course at the Santbergen Institute in Hilversum. Rodrigues has two children.
Rodrigues was the co-founder of Perspektief – Art Foundation, and responsible for programming the exhibitions of the gallery. He was a member of the GKF, the present DuPho, and the Amsterdam Arts Council between 1987 and 1992.
Rodrigues taught photography at several institutions and national and foreign schools. In 2007 and 2008 he was visiting professor at the Master in Visual Arts from the IADE in Lisbon. Since 2009 he is the invited assistant professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Évora. In addition, he often has exhibitions and gives many lectures by invitation.

Awards

Rodrigues' work is held in the following public collections.: