José Bértolo is a Portuguese artist working mainly with photography as a diaristic practice. His work navigates the intersections of perception, memory, and intimacy, using the camera as a tool for self-knowledge and a way of negotiating existence and mortality. He is drawn to the non-human world—animals, landscapes, fleeting natural phenomena—exploring how photography can reveal and reframe our connection to it.

Alongside his artistic work, he teaches at ESAD (Caldas da Rainha School of Art and Design) and is a Post-Doctoral fellow at NOVA University of Lisbon. His current research focuses on Portuguese and Japanese photography, as well as the photobook as a space of material and formal experimentation.

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