LENSCRATCH - Fine Art Photography Daily

Sandra Cattaneo Adorno: Light, Memory and the Everyday Sublime by Ana LealJune 25, 2026

©Sandra Cattaneo Adorno, Dye sublimation print on aluminium, from Águas de Ouro, 2020

©Sandra Cattaneo Adorno, Dye sublimation print on aluminium, from Águas de Ouro, 2020

It is with great pleasure that I share the work of Brazilian photographer Sandra Cattaneo Adorno.

I first encountered Sandra’s photography through her series Águas de Ouro, a deeply poetic body of work that captures the spirit of Rio de Janeiro with remarkable sensitivity. Through luminous color, subtle observation, and an intuitive sense of rhythm, her images evoke not only the city’s landscapes and light, but also the musicality and emotional texture of the carioca soul.

Her subsequent project, Scarti di Tempo, expands her visual language through inventive photographic constructions and layered compositions that explore memory, time, and perception. Equally compelling is Ten Years, a project celebrating a decade of photographic practice, bringing together images that reflect the curiosity, playfulness, and refinement that have come to define her work.

What I find most striking about Sandra’s practice is her ability to transform everyday moments into experiences of wonder, inviting us to look more closely and to embrace the fleeting nature of perception itself.

I would also be remiss not to mention her extraordinary monographs, published by Radius Books. Beautifully conceived and impeccably produced, they are remarkable objects in their own right, distinguished by their thoughtful design, exceptional materials, and exquisite printing. They offer yet another dimension through which to experience her vision.

I hope you enjoy discovering Sandra Cattaneo Adorno’s work as much as I have.

Sandra Cattaneo by Malvina Battiston - Venezia 2024 222 copy

Portait of Sandra Cattaneo by Malvina Battiston – Venezia 2024

Sandra Cattaneo Adorno (b. 1953, Rio de Janeiro) started photographing in 2013 at the age of 60. Her inventive practice revolves around street photography as a way of questioning reality and representation. When exhibiting her work, she adopts an experimental approach that ranges from the use of innovative inks and materials to the combination of stills and projections, visuals and sound.

Cattaneo Adorno has published four monographs with Radius Books: The Other Half of the Sky (2019), Águas de Ouro (2020), Scarti di Tempo (2022) and Ten Years (2024). Her work is the recipient of numerous awards and her photographs have been exhibited widely internationally, as well as featured in several publications. In April of 2024 Cattaneo Adorno launched her solo exhibition, Ten Years, during the 60th Venice Biennale, which was organized by the European Cultural Centre (ECC) and later exhibited at the Florence Biennale 2025. Sandra Cattaneo Adorno is represented by Robert Mann, New York.

In April of 2024 Cattaneo Adorno launched her solo exhibition during the 60th Venice Biennale, organised by the European Cultural Centre. In May 2026 she will open her second solo exhibition in Venice in conjunction with the 61st Biennale.

Instagram: @sandracattaneoadorno

Instagram: @radius.books

Instagram: @robertmanngallery

Sandra Cattaneo Adorno: Águas de Ouro (Radius Books, 2020)

Sandra Cattaneo Adorno Artist Statement

Photography came into my life unexpectedly when my daughter Gwen gifted me a workshop with Alex and Rebecca Webb in Barcelona as a gift for my 60th birthday during the summer of 2013. I had no idea how to use a camera and did not know what to expect, but from the moment I started shooting, I felt a buzz running through me. I found joy in the immediacy and spontaneity of photography, and it opened my eyes to the world in a new way. The street, which once was just a way to get from A to B, came alive as I became alert to shapes and colors I had never noticed before. Being able to frame these elements in an image is a kind of magic that fascinates and surprises me. I’m constantly chasing light. Everything else follows.

A pivotal moment early in my journey occurred while photographing Ipanema Beach from Arpoador for my 2020 series, Águas de Ouro (Portuguese for “waters of gold”). A mist was rising from the sea and hovered over the beach while the light of the setting sun pierced through it, creating an eerie atmosphere. The undertow was very strong and the people were hesitant to get into the sea. When I pressed the shutter, I felt a deep connection to the moment and the place. My approach to photography is intuitive. I look for a feeling that clicks and takes me somewhere else. The reality of a place or a situation is the starting point to another dimension in my images, one that is related to dreams and mystery.

Since I started photographing, I began to see things differently. It had never occurred to me that I could spot such unexpected scenes on the street, but I also came to understand that we, as photographers, can create situations that do not quite correspond with what most people would be seeing. In this sense, I think that perception and vision are unstable. Reflections often catch my eye, as they offer a layered and unusual perspective of reality. With my 2022 series, Scarti di Tempo (Italian for “scraps of time”), I began experimenting with reflections and abstractions to explore the relationship between time, memory, and reality. Much of the poetry of photography rests in capturing the fragile trace of something that has already gone, never to return.

Photography is uniquely accessible compared to other artistic pursuits. If you’re a sculptor or painter, you need studios and materials. But with photography, you simply take a camera anywhere in the world and opportunities appear before you. At the heart of my practice is play. It motivates me to go out, experiment, and be in the moment instead of focusing on the final result. Taking pictures is liberating. I didn’t know I could interpret the world around me while communicating in such a personal way until I picked up a camera and started having fun. I love the excitement of framing a scene that is unpredictable. It rests in being present and aligned with that split second when everything – people, gestures, colors, shapes – come together in a meaningful way.

For me, a photograph is good not because of what is in the frame, but because of where it takes you. I try to create images that are themselves always evolving, and do not reveal themselves easily at first sight so that viewers can give their own meaning to the images. My latest series, Fragments of Light, now on view at Palazzo Bembo during the 61st Venice Biennale, is a continuation of the exploration that I began with Ten Years (2024) in terms of how I present my work to the public. But where Ten Years was a golden celebration of my first decade in photography, the silver sheen of Fragments of Light is more neutral in tone and reflects more light so that the photographs change quite dramatically according to where you are standing in the gallery.

Just like when I photograph, I let my intuition guide me in the selection of the works for the exhibition, as I try to develop a coherent vision and create a subtle conversation between the works. I want to question the idea of photographs as static objects on a wall, presenting them as a video projection, photomosaic installation, photographic prints in silver metallic ink and also on curtain. My wish is for this exhibition to activate the imagination of the visitors. I believe that one of the most powerful aspects of art rests in its ambiguity and its ability to evoke a sense of mystery and wonder; I might want to ask some questions, but I am not interested in providing the answers.

While on press for her second book, Águas de Ouro, Sandra Cattaneo Adorno noticed the brightly colored metal plates used to make test proofs. The plates, called “scarti” (Italian for “scraps”), showed her photographs as monochromes in shocking pink, bright yellow, royal blue, and black, evoking the spirit of Andy Warhol. A jolt of recognition coursed through her veins as Cattaneo Adorno realized the curious way in which photography can be used to preserve — and rearrange — fragments of time.

When the pandemic brought the world to a standstill in March 2020, Cattaneo Adorno noticed time began moving in strange ways, stretching endlessly into some unknown beyond but, if not preserved, disappearing from memory as though it never occurred. She began to feel as though she were accumulating “scraps” of time layering upon itself. Determined to give this experience form, Cattaneo Adorno began traveling through the inner space of her imagination. Delving through her archive, she began collaging otherwise unrelated images to create a series of new work that blurs the boundaries of reality and illusion as a metaphor for the mind.

In her third book, Scarti di Tempo, which means both “time discrepancy” and “scraps of time,” Cattaneo Adorno offers a meditation on perception: how we experience time, memory, connection, and the boundaries between reality and illusion. Moving away from representation, the photographs dissolve into abstraction, transporting us into another realm, the one they share with music and poetry. The book also contains a QR code that links to an original score composed by the artist’s husband, which provides an opportunity to experience the overlapping harmony of image and sound. Scarti di Tempo includes an introduction by GueorguiPinkhassov (b. 1969 in Moscow), award-winning Magnum photographer who has covered international events for four decades.

©Sandra Cattaneo Adorno, Scarti di Tempo I, Gold metallic print, from Ten Years, 2024

©Sandra Cattaneo Adorno, Scarti di Tempo V, Gold metallic print, from Ten Years, 2024

Sandra Cattaneo Adorno: Scarti di Tempo by Sandra Cattaneo Adorno (Radius Books, 2022)

On April 20, 2024, Sandra Cattaneo Adorno unveiled 10 Years at the 7th edition of Personal Structures, which runs parallel with the 60th Venice Biennale. Organized by the European Cultural Centre, the 2024 edition focused on the experience of foreigners, émigrés, exiled, and refugees, especially those who have moved between the Global South and the Global North. Throughout her practice, Cattaneo Adorno embarks on journeys around the globe with camera in hand, capturing glimmering flickers of daily life that evoke scenes from a dream, floating between reality and illusion.

Hailing from Brazil, Cattaneo Adorno’s life, work, and worldview have been shaped by a lifetime of traveling the globe, fostering a sense of belonging in multiple places by the act of making art. Curated by the photographer and Andrea Verganti, 10 Years charts Cattaneo Adorno’s evolution as an image-maker and author, creating a new space for experimentation that elegantly blends the essence of her previous series in The Other Half of the Sky, Águas de Ouro, and Scarti di Tempo into a modernist masterpiece.

This title is only available through Radius.