Born on the Dutch island of Terschelling, Paul Cupido grew up surrounded by the sea. The changing tides, seasons and cycles of the moon continue to inform his visual language.
At the heart of Cupido’s work lies Mu, a philosophical notion of emptiness understood as a space buzzing with potential. Nature and the human body are constant elements in his work, through which he explores love, time and transience. His poetic, formally restrained compositions explore moments of transition, in which everything is interconnected and reality and dream intermingle. Their atmosphere of contemplation, softness and vulnerability is reinforced by handmade Japanese paper, valued for its tactile presence and the way pigment sinks into its fibres.
Cupido graduated cum laude from the Fotoacademie Amsterdam in 2017. He has published several artist books, including Searching for Mu (2017), Continuum (2019), 4 a.m. (2021), Ursa Major (2024) and Drifting Stones (2025). His work has been presented internationally at major photography fairs, including Paris Photo and AIPAD New York, as well as festivals such as Les Rencontres d’Arles and InCadaqués Photo Festival.
In 2017, he received the Hariban Jury Award. In 2022, he was the inaugural artist-in-residence of the Château Palmer & Leica Instants program, followed by a residency at InCadaqués Photo Festival in Catalonia in 2023. In 2026, Cupido received the Alberto Stabile Award, which includes an artist residency on Favignana, Sicily.