José Bértolo is a Portuguese artist and scholar based in Lisbon. 

Working primarily with a diaristic approach to image-making, his work explores perception, memory, and intimacy, using the camera to navigate questions of everyday life and mortality. He is particularly drawn to the non-human world (animals, landscapes, ephemeral natural phenomena) and to how photography can both reveal and reshape our connection to it. 

Beyond his artistic practice, he teaches and serves as a post-doctoral researcher at NOVA University of Lisbon. His current research focuses on Portuguese and Japanese photography, as well as the photobook as a space for material and formal experimentation. 

Through photography and writing, Bértolo moves between visual and theoretical inquiry, questioning how images shape the way we see, remember, and exist in the world.