About
Hello, I'm Mara
I grew up in Setúbal and started at the local paper at twenty, photographing football, fires and the fish market. Fourteen years later I still like the same things: ordinary work, people who are good at it, and the light in rooms nobody thinks to photograph. I live in Lisbon, in Bica, and work wherever a story takes me. Half of my year goes to editorial assignments and my own series, the other half to portraits and family commissions, which I approach the same way: slowly, in the places people actually live.
Mara Vidal
Published in
Where my pictures have run
- Expresso
- Público
- The Weekend Review
- Le Monde M
- Die Zeit
- Imago Lisboa
How I work
What to expect from a commission
1
A conversation first
We talk for half an hour, by phone or over coffee in Lisbon, about the story, the people and what the pictures are for.
2
Available light, almost always
I carry one small light and rarely use it. I would rather wait for the window than build a set.
3
Time on site
An editorial portrait takes me at least two hours, a family day four to six. Most of the good frames arrive after the first hour.
4
An edit within a week
You receive a tight edit of thirty to sixty pictures, colour-graded, within seven days, with prints available from my lab in Lisbon.