Theo Solnik was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1981. He began working as a press photographer at the age of fifteen, contributing to weekly publications in Brazil, and has since developed a professional practice centred on cinematography and film directing.

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His early artistic work included theatre and music, before moving to Norway at the age of seventeen. There, he directed his first short film *Gangster Blues*, pursued studies in philosophy and sociology at the University of Oslo, and presented his first solo photography exhibitions. He later relocated to Berlin to study film directing and cinematography at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb).

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His first feature-length film, *Anna Pavlova lives in Berlin*, produced during his studies, received significant international recognition. The film was awarded the Prize for Young Film Art by the German National Gallery and the German Film Academy and was presented in a dedicated installation at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum in Berlin. It subsequently received multiple awards for cinematography and direction and was screened at international film festivals and major art exhibitions across Europe.

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In parallel with his authored film work, Solnik has served as director of photography on numerous documentary projects, including award-winning films and selected commissioned productions for international organisations and institutions.

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Alongside his cinematic practice, he has maintained a sustained photographic body of work, including official documentation and portraits of heads of state and public figures. He was appointed official photographer for the State Visit of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands to Portugal in 2017, documented the visit of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, to Lisbon in 2022, and served as director of photography on a documentary portrait of Nobel Prize laureate Giorgio Parisi for Swedish National Television (SVT).
 

He works internationally and is fluent in Portuguese, English, German, Spanish, French and Norwegian.