Born in 1974 to a Danish mother and Brazilian father, Christian Cravo was raised in an artistic environment in the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. He was introduced to the art world at an early age, but only started experimenting with photography when he was 11 while living in Denmark, where he spent most of his adolescence.
He interrupted his photography studies in 1993 to undertake obligatory service in the Danish army. At 22, Christian returned to Brazil, where he became deeply involved in photography.
Over the last twenty years Christian has won national and international acclaim through exhibitions at the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia, Throckmorton Fine Art in New York, the Billedhusets Galeri in Copenhagen, the Ministry of Culture in Brasilia, the Tomie Ohtake Institute and the Museu Afro Brasil, both in São Paulo, as well as in group shows at the Witkin Gallery in New York, the S.F. Camera Works Gallery in California, the Fotofest Biennial in Houston and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, among others.
He has won prizes from the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia and the Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography and received research scholarships from Vitae Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation for his research on water and faith. In 2016 he was awarded the APCA (São Paulo Association of Art Critics) prize for the best photographic exhibition in São Paulo in 2015.
He has been nominated for international awards such as the Paul Huff (Netherlands, in 2007) and Prix Pictet (Switzerland/United Kingdom, 2008 and 2015 and 2016).
His first book, Irredentos, came out in 2000, and his second, Roma noire, ville métisse, was published in 2005 by Autrement. His bibliography also includes In the Gardens of Eden (2010), Exú Iluminado (2012), CHRISTIAN CRAVO, produced by the prestigious Brazilian publishing house Cosac & Naify in 2014 and MARIANA, published in 2016.
He currently lives in São Paulo with his wife and three daughters.
