Wendel Fernandes is a Cape Town-based photographer specialising in portraits, socio-contextual lifestyle images, pop culture events and urban/street photography.

During 2009, he worked as a trainer at Johannesburg’s downtown Market Photo Workshop, and in 2008, he was selected as a finalist in the Sasol New Signatures art competition. He was also selected from hundreds of applicants to participate in a photography workshop (organised by the Roger Ballen Foundation) conducted by American photographer Stephen Shore.

Wendel grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, and started his photographic career in Montréal, Canada, where he immersed himself in the Latin American underground of the city and began photographing the life of the streets. During this time he exhibited as part of Les Jeunes Createurs en Art (2000) and La Muestra Cultural Ibero-Latino Americana de Montreal (2001). He also hosted a show on Radio Centre-Ville specialising in Brazilian music for this multi-cultural community radio station.

In 2002, following a definitive period in Mexico City, where he encountered the photography of Tina Modotti and Manuel Álvarez Bravo, he relocated to Johannesburg. After completing a course at the Market Photo Workshop, he worked as an assistant to portrait photographer Sally Shorkend and produced the photographs for The Art of African Shopping, a book by award-winning writer Adam Levin.

He speaks English, Portuguese, French and Spanish.