João Pedro Marnoto, born in 1975 in Porto, Portugal, after completing his photography degree in the UK, received a grant from the Portuguese Centre of Photography to develop a personal project, a photography/video installation titled ”Pity vs Charity – observation and reflexion” (2001). Afterwards, he turned increasingly into documentary on long term projects, with his first book "The Rocks, People and Memories" published in 2007 dealing with the cultural and social heritage of a region in the heart of the Douro Wine region. Afterwards directed his first video documentary while conducting a photography workshop with children from urban and rural areas titled ”Between Us”, and most recently in 2010 finished a photography and video project titled “Faith in Donkeys”, conducted in partnership with AEPGA (Association for the Study and Protection of Asinine Cattle), with a Book+DVD published in February 2011.
Between several presentations, took part in the collective project titled “Happiness” with photography intervention in waiting rooms of Oporto Hospitals and Medical centres as part of Oporto 2001 European Capital of Culture, selected for Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism in Hannover/Germany (2008), participated in “This Day of Change” project developed by Courrier Japan (2009) and showed his work at FotoWeekDC 2010 in Washington DC/USA, while continuing to develop editorial work for national and international media.
On a conclusive note, João Pedro Marnoto work pretends to reflect on issues of identity and the human experience within an environmental, sociological and personal perspective.