About

Luisa Casella trained in Art Conservation at the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar in Portugal, completing her Baccalaureate in 1996 and specializing in Photograph and Paper Conservation through internships at the Arquivo Fotográfico da Câmara Municipal de Lisboa (Lisbon Municipal Photographic Archive) and at the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa (National Library). From 1997 to 1999 she attended the Curso de Estudos Superiores Especializados em Peritagem em Arte (Specialized Course in Art Appraisal and Expertise - ISCED level 5), Escola Superior de Artes Decorativas da Fundação Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva in Lisbon. From 2000 to 2002 Luisa studied photography at the Ar.Co - Centro de Arte e Comunicação Visual. 

After completing her conservation baccalaureate degree in 1996, Luisa started working as a paper conservator at the Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa and as a photograph conservator at the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar. In 1998, she joined the staff of the private photograph conservation practice Luis Pavão, Limitada, first as photograph conservator and later as project manager. For the following eight years she worked in conservation treatment projects of large-scale photograph collections in several museums, archives and cultural institutions in Portugal, and taught workshops throughout the country for collection managers and conservation technicians. 

In 2005, Luisa was awarded a two-year Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of the Advanced Residency Program in Photograph Conservation at George Eastman House (currently George Eastman Museum) and the Image Permanence Institute in Rochester, NY.  Her capstone project was the design and implementation of the website Notes on Photographs, an online resource on photograph characterization and conservation. In 2007 this website was awarded a 2-year National Leadership Grant for Museums from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for further development. 

In 2007, Luisa was awarded the inaugural Research Scholarship in Photograph Conservation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Her research focused on the light-fading behavior of autochrome dyes under anoxic conditions. During the fellowship, Luisa worked on cleaning face-mounted photographs research, and was an integral part of the photograph conservation team - carrying out conservation treatments, environmental monitoring and condition reports, as well as on preparing, monitoring and maintaining exhibition objects. 

From April to November 2011 Luisa worked as Photograph Conservator at Harry Ransom Center in the University of Texas at Austin where she had the opportunity to focus on conservation treatment of objects from large panoramas to cased objects. 

In September 2013, she completed her Master's in Conservation at the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar.  

She worked as photograph conservator at West Lake Conservators from 2012 to 2023.

She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Conservator since 2019.

ORCID ID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8749-8363