Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mario comes from a family of photographers including his mother, father and brothers and lived his early life between chemical smells and photographic laboratories, which influenced his desire to become a Cinematographer.
He worked his way up through the camera ranks, and was able to hone his skills as camera operator with cinematographers such as Oscar winner, Alex Thomson BSC, ASC and Javier Aguirresarobe ASC, and working many years alongside Jose Luis Alcaine AEC on more than 15 feature films where he developed his own aesthetic. He put this to work on more than 40 narrative films and TV series, and has nominations for Goya and Gaudi awards. He was also influenced from working alongside directors such as George Lucas,Simon Anderson,Brian Gibson, Carlos Saura, Fernando Trueba, Julio Medem.
All this time, he was simultaneously working in advertising for brands such as Coca Cola, Toyota, Pepsi, Honda, Benetton, Gillette and Revlon, among many others.
Mario strongly believes that photographing cinema or advertising is a true exercise in letting go, in the sense of ceasing to exist (putting the ego aside), to reflect the narrative through photography, as a visual sense at the service of what is being shown.