Known for his early photographic artwork, Fernando Lemos was associated with the Portuguese surrealists of the late 1940s and early 1950s prior to relocating to Brazil in 1952. During his early career Lemos explored a range of black and white photography techniques including film, overlapping, and partial under/overexposures, exemplified by his 1949 self-portrait Eu/Auto-Retrato. While perhaps best known for these early works, Lemos’s artistic production is ongoing, encompassing a wide range of media including drawing, painting, tapestry, ceramics, mural painting, glass windows, graphic/industrial design, and film photography. His productions are interwoven with experimental techniques and shifts in media.

While residing in Lisbon, Lemos primarily worked with photography and drawing, developing and exploring a variety of media after relocating to São Paulo, Brazil in 1953. In Brazil he turned to painting and drawing, often using Indian ink to develop rhythmic geometric forms, with works such as Desenho (1956) garnering several prizes at various São Paulo Biennials. In later works Lemos returned to the photographic image, utilizing color in his re-working of scratched and painted anonymous photographs, and printing the results on large-format photographic paper.