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Faces of Brazilian Slavery: The Cartes de Visite of Christiano Júnior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Robert M. Levine
Robert M. Levine*
Affiliation:
University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
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Extract

Photographs probably expanded more horizons and redefined more ways of knowing the world than any other product of nineteenth-century technology. The first daguerreotypes appeared in the Western Hemisphere merely months after the triumphal announcement of Daguerre's process by the French Academy in 1839. In the next three decades, millions of photographic images were produced. Three distinct categories predominated: studio portraits, scenic views for collectors and, after the early 1850s, photographic images transferred to woodcuts and, later, lithographs for publication as line sketches in illustrated newspapers and magazines. Photographic “science” complemented neatly the elite's striving for ways to affirm the region's material progress. Photographers played a vital role in presenting to the world a vision rooted in the aspirations of the dominant members of society.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , October 1990 , pp. 127 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1990

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References

1 For a history of early photography, see Taft, Robert Photography and the American Scene; A Social History, 1839–1889 (New York: Macmillan Co., 1938;Google Scholar rpt, New York: Dover Publications, 1964).

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7 See de Azevedo, Paulo César e Lissovsky, Maurício eds., “O fotógrafo Christiano Jr.,” Escravos brasileiros do século xix na fotografia de Christiano Jr. (São Paulo: Ed. Ex Libris, 1987).Google Scholar Photograph No. 69, for example, of two armed soldiers in Moorish-looking garb, may well have been taken in Africa.

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9 Almanak Administrativo, Mercantil e Industrial da Corte e da Provincia do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro: Laemmert, 1863).

10 At one point, for example, his cards were signed “Christiano Jr. “Miranda.” One of these cards has the Christiano Júnior name crossed out neatly in pen, indicating that the partnership dissolved. See Escravos brasileiros, figure 47.

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16 Northern abolitionists in the United States successfully used photographs of light-skinned southern slaves to shock audiences and to raise funds for anti-slavery activities. See Collins, Kathleen “Portraits of Slave Children,” History of Photography, 9:3 (July-September, 1985), 187–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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19 Courtesy of Thomas H. Holloway. See the Ludwig and Briggs lithographic collection from the 1840s in the Biblioteca Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, published in fascimilie as Lembrança do Brasil.

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