Liliana Rocha is a photographer and researcher specialising in photographic archives and visual heritage. Since 2018, her work has focused on the archipelago of Cape Verde, with particular emphasis on former photographic studios, historical photography, and vernacular image practices.
In 2026 she submitted her PhD thesis, titled Clichés Identitários em Mindelo: Um estudo antropológico sobre Cabo Verde a partir da Foto Melo (1890–1992), to the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and sustained collaboration with the heirs of the century-old Foto Melo studio, her investigation explored its unique archive in order to demonstrate its historical and aesthetic significance. Her work seeks to advance multiple lines of inquiry, contributing to the writing of a history of photography in Cape Verde and foregrounding the urgent need to safeguard this and other collections that remain largely unpublished and peripheral to dominant historical narratives.
Committed to bridging photographic research, conservation, and public engagement, she is currently dedicated to the study of Cape Verdean photographic heritage, dividing her time between Portugal and the island of São Vicente, where she conducts ethnographic fieldwork, archival treatment, and exhibition curatorship.
Her doctoral research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), where she was a fellow from 2019 to 2024. She holds a BA in Journalism from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto and an MA in Cultural Studies from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD). She was awarded Academic Merit Distinction for two consecutive years (2015 and 2016) and, in 2016, received the Novo Banco/UTAD Prize for research conducted at the Portuguese Overseas Historical Archive, which formed the basis of her master’s dissertation.
In 2026 she submitted her PhD thesis, titled Clichés Identitários em Mindelo: Um estudo antropológico sobre Cabo Verde a partir da Foto Melo (1890–1992), to the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and sustained collaboration with the heirs of the century-old Foto Melo studio, her investigation explored its unique archive in order to demonstrate its historical and aesthetic significance. Her work seeks to advance multiple lines of inquiry, contributing to the writing of a history of photography in Cape Verde and foregrounding the urgent need to safeguard this and other collections that remain largely unpublished and peripheral to dominant historical narratives.
Committed to bridging photographic research, conservation, and public engagement, she is currently dedicated to the study of Cape Verdean photographic heritage, dividing her time between Portugal and the island of São Vicente, where she conducts ethnographic fieldwork, archival treatment, and exhibition curatorship.
Her doctoral research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), where she was a fellow from 2019 to 2024. She holds a BA in Journalism from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto and an MA in Cultural Studies from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD). She was awarded Academic Merit Distinction for two consecutive years (2015 and 2016) and, in 2016, received the Novo Banco/UTAD Prize for research conducted at the Portuguese Overseas Historical Archive, which formed the basis of her master’s dissertation.
