Hélder Paz Monteiro was born on the island of Santo Antão, Cabo Verde, in 1973. In 1998, while a student of architecture and urbanism in Rio de Janeiro, he bought his first analog camera and started taking his first photographs. In April 2004, he acquired a digital camera and began to look at photography in a different way.
From 2005–19, he had eight solo shows in Cabo Verde and was also featured in several group exhibitions inside and outside of the country. He is the coauthor of eight anthologies of contemporary photography, edited and published in Portugal by Chiado Editora and Edições Vieira da Silva. He was nominated in the “culture” category of the “We Are Cabo Verde—Best of the Year” awards.