For the past few decades, Mauro Restiffe has been building an archive of photographs taken with the same analog camera, composed predominantly of black-and-white images. While he resists the notion of working within specific themes, his practice consistently returns to everyday scenes and spaces, stripped of monumentality. His photographs encompass architecture, urban environments, landscapes, and moments of intimacy. Even when engaging with historically charged subjects, such as significant political events, Restiffe’s gaze gravitates toward their peripheries, capturing what unfolds on the margins. A quiet, contemplative quality emerges in his portraits, where an intimate human presence surfaces. The distinctive grain of the analog format, a deliberate rejection of the disposability of digital imagery, imbues his work with a textured atmosphere, situating his photographs between memory and narrative.

Among his recent solo exhibitions are Onda Avalanche Vulcão: Mauro Restiffe & Maria Manoella, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brazil (2025); Photograph of photograph of photographs of photographs or she wanted to know more about this, Coleção Moraes Barbosa, São Paulo, Brazil (2025); Santo Sospir: Mauro Restiffe/Jean Cocteau, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Monaco Amanhã de manhã, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, Portugal (2022); Laço rastro traço | Rastro traço laço, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Mauro Restiffe: History as Landscape, OGR Torino, Turin, Italy (2019); São Paulo, Fora de Alcance, Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo, Brazil (2018) and Álbum, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2017). He also participated in the group shows Chosen Memories:Contemporary Art From Latin America – Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift and Beyond, MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S.A. (2023);  Histórias Brasileiras, MASP – Museu de Arte Assis Chateaubriand, São Paulo, Brazil (2022); On the line: documents of risk and faith, CAC – Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, U.S.A. (2022); Faz escuro mas eu canto, 34th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil (2021); O Canto do Bode, Casa da Cultura de Comporta, Comporta, Portugal (2021); Nothing Stable Under Heaven, SFMOMA, San Francisco, U.S.A. (2018);12th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2018).

Restiffe’s work has been included in many important public collections, such as the MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Tate Modern, London, UK; SFMOMA – San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA; TBA21 – Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil;  MAC USP – Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA; Fundación ARCO, Madrid, Spain;  MFA – Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, USA; Colección Cisneros, Caracas, Venezuela; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain;  MON – Museu Oscar Niemeyer, Curitiba, Brazil; Fondazione Fotografia Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena, Italy e Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon, Portugal.