Joel Santos was born in 1978 in Lisbon, Portugal. He holds an honors degree in Economics and a master‘s degree in Economics and Management of Science and Technology. Despite his academic background, he has dedicated the last nine years to his greatest passion: photography.

His photographs and writings are frequently published by photography, travel and corporate magazines all over the world, having featured more than thirty covers and hundreds of articles. His work has also been shown in several individual and collective exhibitions, namely in Portugal, Poland and East Timor. His photographic work and published books are frequently featured on the main portuguese TV channels, namely RTP, SIC and TVI, where he has given roughly ten interviews during the the past three years.

He has won several national and international photography awards for his work, including the First Prize (2006) and Honorable Mention (2007) in the Nature of Prémio Fotojornalismo Visão/BES (World Press Photo standards and jury), and Wild Places (Nature/Color, 2007), FIAP Silver Medal (Nature/Color, 2009) and Best Portuguese (Nature/Color, 2009) in the Algarve Photo Salon (sponsored by The International Federation of photographic Art – FIAP – and the Photographic Society of America – PSA).

With the travel agency Papa-Léguas, he currently leads trips and photography workshops in Portugal and all over the world, combining his vast experience as a traveller with his love of communicating and teaching.