Rosângela Rennó’s work is characterized by appropriating newspapers, old family albums, slides, discarded images found in flea markets, archives or dead files. Interested in “how the system systematically tries to erase the links to the past”, she wants to make visible society’s anonymous and overlooked protagonists who, in vernacular photographs, often express far more about the human condition than photographs with an artistic intent. Distinguished by her innovative, politically charged presentations, she appropriates and transforms archival photographic material into larger compositions, often in the form of installations or photographic books.

Her artistic approach unfolds a systematic investigation of time and of the relation between memory and forgetfulness, also visible in the social and psychological changes that transform reminiscence. She plays with the imperfection of memory and photography, both of which are fragmentary and approximate lived experience.
Rennó has taken part in numerous international manifestations such as the Rencontres d’Arles (2023), as the winner of the Women in Motion Award; the 3rd Beijing Photo Biennial (2018), Video Brasil (2018), 23rd PhotoBiennale Festival, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Greece (2018), BIENALSUR, Buenos Aires (2017-2019), Triennale, Paris (2012), 4th Moscow Biennale (2011), 12th Istanbul Biennial (2011), Bienal de Sao Paolo (1994-1998-2010), 50th Venice Biennale – Brazilian Pavilion (2003) and 2nd Berlin Biennale (2001). In 2021, the Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo presented a major survey exhibition of her work, covering over three decades of her career.