Márcio Vasconcelos

Márcio Vasconcellos moves between documentary photography and anthropological research to build images that celebrate the richness and depth of Afro-Brazilian and popular cultures of northern and northeastern Brazil. His work is marked by processes of immersion that have taken him as far as Benin, where he investigated the connections between African terreiros and Maranhão's Tambor de Mina. In his photographs, rites, bodies, garments, gestures, and sacred spaces appear with an attentiveness and care that exceeds ethnographic documentation, articulating presence, memory, and belonging. By bringing immemorial cultures into dialogue with contemporary phenomena and allowing fieldwork to inform authorial expression, the artist transforms the photographic image into a living space through which spiritual practices, collective memories, and communal bonds circulate.

He is the author of "Arte nas Mãos: Mestres Artesãos Maranhenses" (Sebrae, 2007), "Nagon Abioton: um estudo fotográfico e histórico sobre a Casa de Nagô" (Programa Petrobras Cultural, 2009), "Zeladores de Voduns: do Benin ao Maranhão" (Editora Pitomba, 2016), "Na Trilha do Cangaço: o sertão que Lampião pisou" (Vento Leste Editora, 2016), "Visões de um Poema Sujo" (Vento Leste Editora, 2017), and "Bumba meu boi do Maranhão" (2021, self-published). He has participated in the group exhibitions "Histórias brasileiras" (MASP, São Paulo, 2022) and "Um Defeito de Cor" (Museu de Arte do Rio, 2022; Museu Nacional da Cultura Afro-Brasileira, Salvador, 2023; Sesc Pinheiros, 2025). He received the 1st National Prize for Afro-Brazilian Cultural Expressions from Fundação Cultural Palmares/Petrobras for "Zeladores de Voduns: do Benin ao Maranhão," and the XI, XIV, and XVI Funarte Marc Ferrez Photography Prize for "Na Trilha do Cangaço: o sertão que Lampião pisou," "Visões de um Poema Sujo," and "Bumba meu boi do Maranhão," respectively. His works are held in the collections of the Museu Afro Brasil, São Paulo; Museu do Pontal, Rio de Janeiro; MASP, São Paulo; and MAR, Rio de Janeiro.