In 2007, Pina published his first book, Por Teu Livre Pensamento (out of print), featuring the stories of twenty-five former Portuguese political prisoners. This project inspired an Amnesty International advertising campaign that earned him a Gold Lion Award in the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. In 2013, the Open Society Foundation selected this work for their annual Moving Walls 21 exhibition. João was the recipient of The Alexandra Boulat Grant in 2009, and the Estação Imagem Grant in 2010. He was a finalist for the Henri Nannen and Care awards in 2011.

In 2014, João finished his longest personal project, documenting the remnants of Operation Condor, a large-scale secret military operation to eliminate political opposition to the military dictatorships in South America during the 1970s. The resulting body of work led to him publishing his second book, CONDOR. His third book, 46750, published in 2018, focused on the ongoing urban violence in Rio de Janeiro and the city’s transformation over the past decade while preparing for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.

João’s photographs have been published in D Magazine, Days Japan, El Pais, Expresso, GEO, La Vanguardia, New York Times, New Yorker, Newsweek, Stern, Time, and Visão, among others. His work has been exhibited in New York at: the Open Society Foundation, the ICP, Point of View Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery, King Juan Carlos Center; and internationally in the Canon Gallery (Japan), Museu de Arte Moderna (Rio de Janeiro), Museo de Arte do Rio (Rio de Janeiro), Paço das Artes (São Paulo), Centro de Fotografia (Montevideo), Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Santiago de Chile), Parque de la Memoria (Buenos Aires), Torreão Poente – Museu de Lisboa (Lisbon), KGaleria (Lisbon), the Portuguese Center of Photography (Porto), Visa pour L’Image (Perpignan), and Les Rencontres d’Arles.

João was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University between 2017 and 2018. He is currently a faculty member of the International Center of Photography in New York, and a regular lecturer and teacher of photography workshops.