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IMAGES AND IDEOLOGY IN THE PARÁ STATE ALBUMS

Elis Miranda

Profª Adjunto I da Universidade Federal Fluminese – UFF

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an analysis of images from the Pará State Albums, produced between 1898 and 1939. The objectives of these albums was the inclusion of Pará state in international and national expositions and advertisement for the policies of the state’s governors. Images were analyzed from the perspective of the Theory of Social Representations, asserting that such material represents political propaganda in favor of Republican ideals promoting federation states while at the same time formulating notions of a Brazilian Nation.

Key-words: Representations; Expositions; Album and Image

IMAGENS E IDEOLOGIAS NOS ÁLBUNS DO ESTADO DO PARÁ

RESUMO

O texto apresenta a análise das imagens dos Álbuns do Estado do Pará produzidos entre 1898 e 1939. A confecção dos Álbuns atendia aos objetivos de inserir o Estado do Pará nas Exposições Nacionais e Internacionais, bem como, promover a propaganda dos Governadores do Estado. A leitura das imagens é feita a partir da teoria das representações sociais que entende este material como sendo instrumento de propaganda dos ideais Republicanos de valorização dos Estados da Federação, ao mesmo tempo em que se construía a idéia de Nação Brasileira.

Palavras-Chave: Representação; Exposição; Álbum e Imagem

IMAGENES Y IDEOGIAS DE LOS ÁLBUMES DEL ESTADO DE PARÁ

RESUMEN

El texto presenta análisis de las imágenes de los Álbumes del Estado de Pará producidos entre 1898 y 1939. La confección de los Álbumes atendía a los objetivos de inserir el Estado de Pará en Exposiciones Nacionales e Internacionales, mientras promovía la propaganda de los gobernadores estaduales. La interpretación de imágenes es hecha a partir de la teoría de representaciones sociales, en la cual este material es comprendido como instrumento de propaganda de los ideales Republicanos de valoración de los estados confederados, en paralelo a la construcción de la idea de Nación Brasileña.

Palabras Clave: Representación; Exposición; Álbum y Imagen

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Introduction

This work analyzes the images presented in the Pará State Albums, which were created between the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Centuries. The images were produced as a means for the participation of the state in National and International Expositions and constitute elaborate propaganda documents attempting to promote commercial establishments, banks, and shipping firms in Europe. Later, these images served as propaganda tools for the state’s governors by publicizing accomplishments achieved during their administrations.

The images contained in these albums can be analyzed from different academic perspectives, such as Art History, because of the fact that they include some of the first landscape photography produced of the Amazon in the 19th Century, or as propaganda, due to their role as the first published media with images of the Amazon in the 19th Century. Geographers, for their part, can make use of these images for an analysis of the landscape depicted. These images thus allow a reading of the type of Amazonian landscape that lawmakers sought to display in Europe.

Readings of images are performed according to Social Representations Theory (MOSCOVICI, 1984 and 1978). It is understood that by reading the images of landscapes it is possible to recognize the representations marked on the space throughout time, and that these marks define historical periods. Marks that were erased from the landscape can be re-established with the use of the images in the albums. These images present references to the ideas being promoted in Brazil and abroad at the time through National and International Expositions, taking place during the transition from the Imperial Period (19th Century) to the Republican Period (20th Century), and which widely encouraged ideas of modern cities.

1. The National and International Expositions

While the history of the expositions can be traced to the Ancient Near East, it was only during the 19th Century, and after the Industrial Revolution, that the expositions served to raise awareness of technological advances. Beginning in England and France, during the 1800s the expositions gradually became marked on the calendars of all the leading nations of the world.

According to TAMIR (1939:p.15), the marketplace is something that dates to the ancient Near East, specifically to Canaan, which was the first industrial and commercial nation of antiquity. Later the Greeks and Romans used fairs and marketplaces. This practice began spreading throughout Europe during the 12th-Century Renaissance, and later throughout the world.

Fairs are still held all over the world today, as in the examples of automotive, agricultural produce, cattle, industrial, and cosmetic fairs. While the practice of fairs is certainly not new, any small technological advance or way of presenting a product is heralded as a great innovation. At their essence, markets are purely commercial activities that have always been performed in close proximity to important cities. It is believed that the first market took place circa 1159 in Berlin, followed by the German cities of Leipzig (1170), Bolzano, Italy (1200), Regensburg, Germany (1230), and Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany (1253/1240) (Tamir, 1939: p.15). Expositions differed from fairs and markets in not being limited to commerce, including cultural presentations and scientific advances.

England and France inaugurated the Universal Expositions as a way to highlight their industrial products, which were sold on all continents. The World’s Exposition, first held in 1862, was preceded by the National Fairs and Expositions, which were created with the objective of presenting the industrial products of each country before being presented abroad.

The participation of Brazil in the First International Exposition, held in the United Kingdom in 1862, can be cited as an example of this practice. In the year preceding this event, a National Exposition was realized in the Court of Rio de Janeiro that attracted participants from all regions of Brazil who represented both state governments and private businesses. Pará participated in the Expositions showcasing samples of seeds, wood, and natural fibers.

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(...) which was a bounty, and as a result of the availability of our products, constitutes the starting point of Brazil’s Intervention in the International Exposition in London” (Report about the International Exposition of 1862. London: MDCCCLXIII).

Beginning with the Exposition in London, Brazil became a participant in the leading International Expositions, being invited to other universal expositions. In addition, it organized its own expositions, all of which were held in the city of Rio de Janeiro (1861; 1908; 1922), the Royal Capital which became the Capital of the Republic in 1889.

The term exposition, from the root expose, means to present, put (oneself) in view or exhibition; display (works of art) (goods for sale in public); cause to be visible or open to view; present, show, highlight. These were indeed the objectives of national and world expositions: to expose objects from the art, industry, science, agriculture, and mining of the participating countries.

Brazil was a participant in the main expositions of the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th Centuries. It held its own expositions as well, either as preparations for the world expositions, or to celebrate Brazilian historical landmarks and anniversaries. Yet even when commemorative, these expositions retained a strong commercial emphasis. Organizers of national expositions encouraged local government and business leaders to organize their own exposition spaces. Documents from the period register the efforts of individual states’ organizing committees charged with promoting their local products on the national stage.

Pará was one of the states that participated in the National Expositions and, beginning in 1898, took part in the International Expositions. It benefitted from the private initiative of an Italian typographer who saw in the exhibition space an opportunity to sell products that were not being offered. Artur Caccavoni created an album using paintings, photographs, and typography to display products offered for sale but not present in the official exposition areas. In this way, Arthur Caccavoni produced three albums to advertize products produced in Pará State in the International Expositions. Upon noticing that these albums represented an efficient means of promoting products, state governments adopted this technique as a way to promote their states in Brazil, Europe, and the United States.

2. Pará State Albums or Pará Propaganda in the Albums

Eight Pará State Albums were analyzed, of which a) three were produced through the initiative of Artur Caccavoni (1898; 1899; 1900) for Pará’s participation in World Expositions, b) four were ordered by the state’s governors (1899; 1908; 1922; 1939) and c) one was the 1900 Pará State Album to Celebrate the Quadricentennial of the Discovery of Brazil. While it is possible that other Pará albums intended for display in expositions, such as those held in Philadelphia and Chicago, exist, these were the only albums located, identified, and analyzed following searches for documents carried out from 2001 to 2006 in Belém, Rio de Janeiro, and Lisbon. Despite documental evidence pertaining to Pará’s participation in the Philadelphia and Chicago Expositions, albums for these events were not located.

It is believed that careful readings of the images and texts presented in each of the albums can point to the economic, political, and ideological interests of each period. In addition, during each period the albums were produced, the local, regional, and international markets established by Pará businessmen and governors can be identified, as well as explaining the multilevel relations of the projects of representation created in Pará.

The state’s propaganda reflects a commitment to the interests of the dominant political groups that sought to perpetuate their power with representations and actions. The albums’ images seem to blur the line between reality and representation in the way these albums emphasize images of 18th Century architectural monuments, portraits of public leaders, and peaceful scenes representative of the Portuguese colonization of the Amazon. If on the one hand we detect the absence of day-to-day

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images of Amazon males such as fishermen, fruit and seed collectors, as well as an absence of females, on the other hand we perceive the massive representation of public personalities such as governors, congressmen, senators, city councilmen, and businessmen.

2.1. Album Descrittivo Annuario dello Stato del Pará, 1898

The first album produced for Pará of which we have documentation was produced by the initiative of Arthur Caccavoni, an Italian who had settled in Pará and worked for a company that did the advertizing for all types of commercial establishments, including Italian, French, Portuguese, and Spanish businesses in Pará State. This advertizing was done on posters and product labels with a technique that employed mixtures of painting, typography, and photography on the same page.

The Album Descrittivo Annuario dello Stato del Pará, of 1898, (Image 1) was aimed exclusively at financial, industrial, and commercial firms and produced for the Turin General Italian Exposition. It was written exclusively in Italian and possessed one thousand copies that were distributed among participants of the exposition in Italy.

It is assumed that Caccavoni produced the 1898 album with his own finances and subsequently sold advertizing space to state entrepreneurs and the state government. Yet as this first project was not well received in Belém, we would imagine that the local business community failed to see the impact that a simple album of images could have internationally. Only banking and shipping firms and the Fidanza photography studio bought space that year. This may explain the presence of Italian and Portuguese products in Pará and have facilitated their entrance into that market.

The cover of the 1898 album presented a nature image featuring a steamboat on a river surrounded by forest, which represented the development of long-distance transportation. The steamboat was the principal means of transportation both between continents and between Belém and Manaus, the two main cities of the Amazon region. With this album, according to Caccavoni, Pará was on the trade route of the principal cities of the world and was thus a cosmopolitan region. The top of the cover contained three symbols: a) on the left the symbol of the Italian Expositions, b) in the center the Pará State Seal, and c) on the right the seal of the United States of Brazil. In this representation, Pará, a state of the Republic of Brazil, occupies the center of events in participating in the International Exposition of Turin, Italy.

It is worth calling attention to the lack of maps and other cartographic references to Pará in this 1898 album. While entitled “Descriptive Album,” it fails to describe and thus represents

Image 1 - Descrittivo Annuario dello Stato del Pará, of 1898 Image by: Fatima Roque

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propaganda whose contents do not live up to its title. Instead of a map of the city of Belém, the state’s capital, the editor printed a map of the Italian city of Genoa; this in addition to including numerous pages of advertizing for Italian and Portuguese commercial establishments. All of this shows an intention on Caccavoni’s part in simply selling advertizing space and not in describing Pará State, as the title would suggest.

After launching the 1898 album, Caccavoni went on to produce two more albums in 1899 and 1900, which served as models for the fabrication of state government albums in 1899, 1908, 1922, and 1939 and for the 1900 Commemorative Album.

2.2.Álbum Drescriptivo Amazônico – Anno II, 1899

After having received an award for the Descriptive Album of Pará at the 1898 Exposition, Caccavoni was successful in selling his project to Pará merchants, to the Pará State Government, and to Manaus merchants. A comparison of the differences between the two albums reveals the degree to which Caccavoni promoted his business interests in the Amazon region. The first album (1898) was published in Italian and the second (1899) in both Portuguese and Italian; the first had few photographic images, while the second was intensely illustrated with 150 photos of Belém and other cities of Pará; and the advertizing for Belém commercial establishments was well represented and the advertisements for Port and Genoa stores had disappeared. In this second album the map of the city of Genoa had been replaced by the map of the city of Belém. It also had the support of the State Governor, Paes de Carvalho, and featured his photograph.

The 1899 album did not participate in any international exposition, representing propaganda from Pará’s participation in the Turin Exposition of 1898 and the Chicago Exposition of 1893. It is important to note that in the captions of the photographs printed in this album there is no identification of the year of the Chicago Exposition, bearing simply the caption Brazilian Pavilion in the Chicago Exposition in both Portuguese and Italian.

Other considerations should be noted for the album of 1899. The inner cover states that the Descriptive Album of 1898 was given an award in Turin, reflecting a certain self-promotion on Caccavoni’s part. The title change from Descriptive Album of Pará to Descriptive Album of the Amazon occurred due to the heightened participation of merchants from the state of Amazonas in this newer edition. We believe that the term Amazon had obtained a specific meaning in European expositions and that Arthur Caccavoni perceived the importance of the Amazon as a product for European consumption.

Image 2 Álbum Drescriptivo Amazônico – Anno II, 1899

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The advertisements printed in this second volume are all from commercial establishments in Manaus and Belém, showing confidence in the advertising value of this material among businessmen of these cities. It is important to remember that Caccavoni was the commercial representative of Fratelli Armanino, an Italian advertising firm operating in Genoa, which possessed representatives in Spain, France, and Portugal. In Brazil, it had representatives in Belém, Manaus, Rio de Janeiro, and Maranhão.

The Great Musical Instrument Establishment in the image above is not the only commercial establishment to advertise in the 1899 album. In addition, there are images of the commercial warehouse and the Politeama Paraense, a club that promoted the Grandiose Bailli every year, complete with orchestra, opera, and magazine, as well as for the Oliveira Photographic Studio.

In the previous album, photographic images were the responsibility of the studio of Felipe Fidanza, an Italian photographer, and in this second edition they were prepared by the Estúdio Photográphico Oliveira. Fidanza, who had participated in the first edition of the Caccavoni Album and advertised his studio there, came to represent competition to the Italian, preparing the Album of the Administration of the Governor of Pará State, Paes de Carvalho, the first of a series of Governor Albums.

2.3. Pará State Album – 1899 – José Paes de Carvalho

The Album of Pará State of 1899, produced by the government administration, presents photographs by Filipe Fidanza and text by Henrique Santa Rosa. It is rich in images of the municipalities and emphasizes public buildings and natural scenes such as rivers and forests and a curious image of indigenous tribesmen hunting at a stream’s edge. Photographic technical resources available in the 19th Century, however, did not permit candid photography. Photographic exposures required so much time during this period that such a scene would be impossible to register spontaneously, and thus our interest in this peculiar indigenous scene.

The aforementioned album bears a text about the history of Pará, covering events starting from the first explorers who made their way through the Amazon in the 15th Century. In the text Professor Henrique Santa Rosa emphasizes the importance of the travels of Frenchman Daniel de La Touche in the region to Pará’s history .

In July of 1613 La Touche [Daniel] explored Pará from the mouth of the Gurupy and traveled many leagues up the Tocantins (1899; p.8)

Image 3 The Great Musical Instrument Establishment. IN: Álbum Drescriptivo Amazônico – Anno II, 1899

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There are no documental references for La Touche’s travels in Pará. The French colonizer founded the city of São Luíz, Maranhão, in 1612, before being driven out by a Portuguese fleet in 1615. By affirming that Pará was an object of interest to French colonizers and disputed and dominated by the Portuguese, feelings of pride were produced in the local society who felt more interesting and important for being the object of dispute among civilized European nations.

The album contained a photographic mosaic with the busts of senators, district attorneys, congressmen, and governmental secretaries and assistant secretaries, and featuring the image of Governor Paes de Carvalho in the center. Even the ex-governor of the state is presented on a full page. The men who posed for these photos were not soon forgotten either; they are honored by having their names on streets, as in the case of Serzedelo Corrêa, Antônio Baena, and Antônio Bastos, on schools, as with Gentil Bittencourt, Antônio Lemos, Santa Rosa, Justo Chermont, Lauro Sodré, and Paes de Carvalho, and on public squares, as with Justo Chermont in Belém and in the hinterlands of the state. Felipe Fidanza’s photographs also present four aspects of Pará: Nature, which includes the indigenous peoples, the urban architecture, the fluvial transport system, and industrial equipment.

Image 4 - Cover of the Pará

Album of 1899 –

Administration of Governor Paes de Carvalho

Images 5 and 6 Belém is presented as a modern city with great architectural monuments, a transportation infrastructure, industrial equipment, and electric energy production.

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Just as occurred with other Brazilian cities of the period, Belém is presented as a modern city with great architectural monuments, a transportation infrastructure, industrial equipment, and electric energy production. The smoking chimney represents development in the way it reveals machinery hard at work. The State Albums, however, also depict elements of Nature, though dominated by work. The indigenous thatched-roof houses constructed in the rainforest and the tribesmen shooting their arrows with bows show just how much the natural world had been dominated. The Indians, former savages, now allowed themselves to be photographed, and thus no longer offered risks to the modern and civilized society.

The engagement of Brazil in the Project of modernity was formerly due to an imaginary plan. In other words, the appropriation of values related to industrialization and Progress occurred on the surface because of the images connected to them (Hardman, 1988 and Mauad, 1997; apud Rezende, 2005)

We agree with the opinions of Rezende (2005) when she states that the values related to industrialization were created before industrialization was itself established in Brazilian states, and that the albums presented images and ideals of modern cities before a modern society was itself constructed. Although the images project civilized, cosmopolitan, and industrialized cities, the daily practices were still those of colonial ones.

2.4. Amazon Descriptive Album – Anno III: The Commercial Pará in the Paris Exposition of 1900

The third album produced by Arthur Caccavoni was edited for Pará’s participation in the World’s Fair of 1900 in Paris. In addition to the advertisements for the same commercial establishments that had appeared in previous editions of the albums, other businesses began to make their presence known for the album that would represent Pará in the World’s Fair of 1900 in Paris.

The album of 1900 presents more intensely colored and elaborate pages, from a graphic point of view, along with texts in Portuguese, French, and Italian that accompanied advertisements for the products that made history in Pará.

Caccavoni innovated once more. He had done away with the book format and created a new, rectangular format with pages featuring photographs and typography. The album’s bookbinding was composed of cloth and made use of colored lettering that highlighted the first letter of each word in red. The seal of Pará and the Republic of the United States of Brazil were not absent, nor was a dedication to Governor Paes de Carvalho.

Image 7 Cover of the album The Commercial Pará – Paris World’s Fair 1900

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The vivid colors of the state and republic seals surround the protraits of the Governor and the President of the Republic, which are positioned side-by-side. Thus the governor and the president are on the same level, as if in an attempt to equate them in importance. Caccavoni’s previous albums of 1898 and 1899 did not present public officials in such an explicit way. Could the album be a means of advertising for the Governor of Pará in Paris? If not, what would justify the use of his photograph printed in propaganda material made exclusively for his administration? Propaganda is a form of disseminating ideas and elected officials had already mastered this mechanism of social control and of representation even before the 19th Century.

On a special page Caccavoni acknowledges the valuable contributions the Municipal Intendant of the capital of Pará, Antônio Lemos, José Marques Braga, and José Augusto Corrêa. Once more the names of public figures are highlighted in advertising material that is meant to be presented outside the state. The images of these figures are presented as if they were products offered for sale.

Caccavoni’s business was in typography, with which he created advertising material, but his albums are noteworthy in the way their treatment of the images and names of public figures takes on the role of an advertisement. Ideas and the images of public leaders intermingle indiscriminately with playing cards and musical instruments.

The portraits of public and business leaders were printed in many kinds of advertisements. The Província do Pará, the Beirão Drugstores, and the Oliveira Photography Studios did not only advertise their products, but also promoted those who ran those businesses. This raises the point that photography at the end of the 19th Century may not have merely been a form of artistic expression like painting, but a means of representing the emerging capitalist society that used this technology. And while few had access to it, those who did could use photography to both register their images as they appeared at the time and to permanently associate those images with the notion of progress for future generations.

The advertisements of the Estabelecimento Typo-Lytigraphico feature the portraits of Caccavoni and his business associate; the page dedicated to the Província do Pará bears the portraits of Antônio Lemos, Antônio Chermont, and Marques de Carvalho. The Charpenterie et scierie à vapeur also presents the image of Carvalho, its owner, on a page that advertises the establishment, as is the case with Drogarias Beirão, a company whose advertisements bear portraits of the company’s owners and that employs artistic photography on product packaging.

Image 8 - Advertising space in the album The Commercial Pará – Paris World’s Fair 1900

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In 1900 Antônio Lemos was the Municipal Intendant of Belém and the other representatives of the newspaper A Província do Pará belonged to the families of elected officials who were able to maintain administrative positions in the state. The surnames Malcher, Lemos, and Chermont are still present on today’s lists of congresspersons, senators, state agency directors, and university professors and deans, as well as being names of streets, public squares, and schools in the state of Pará.

2.5. Album in 1900. Commemorative Publication Marking the Quadricentennial of Brazil’s Discovery by Europeans

The second album produced in 1900 was dedicated to Pará’s participation in the celebrations of the Quadricentennial of the Discovery of Brazil. It was produced by the Alfredo Augusto Silva Press and reveals a lower quality of expertise in the reproductions of images carried out by this firm when compared to that of Caccavoni’s Tipographya. It is an album composed exclusively of texts and fails to present a single photograph of a landscape or portrait of a community leader.

Image 9 Images of Community Leaders - The Commercial Pará - Paris World’s Fair 1900

Imagem 10 Cover of the album Quadricentennial of the Discovery of Brazil - Pará in 1900

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The images contained in this album are divided into chapters. With the advent of photography, relief printmakers were among those who first adopted this new technique as a way to reproduce reality. From a technical standpoint the album produced by Caccavoni, therefore, is considerably more impressive than this album of 1900, created by the Imprensa Alfredo Augusto Silva.

The album Quadricentennial of the Discovery of Brazil contains material intended to promote the spread of knowledge. It gives priority to quotations by European explorers of the Amazon region from the 15th to the 19th Centuries, describing their itineraries and journey lengths and showing just how valuable Europe had considered Pará since the 15th Century. The texts that appear were written by men of science and professors including Artur Viana, José Veríssimo, Barão de Marajó, Emílio A. Goeldi, Gonçalo Lagos, J. Godinho, Américo Campos, and Ignácio Moura Paulino de Brito, whose themes were divided among nature, medicine, exploration, geography, history, and printing. Each author wrote on his own respective area of expertise.

2.6. 1908 Pará State Album: Augusto Montenegro Administration

Rio de Janeiro hosted the Brazilian Exposition to Commemorate the Centennial of the Opening of the Ports in 1908 and the Governor of Pará commissioned the publication of the 1908 Pará State Album: eight years of the Augusto Montenegro Government (1901-1908). While this edition makes no mention of the national exposition, it is possible that Montenegro had ordered it to promote the accomplishments of his administration in the republic’s capital.

Image 11- Cover 1908 Pará State Album: Augusto Montenegro Administration

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This was the first Governor Album edited outside of Pará; the Paris firm of Edições Chaponet was responsible for the publicity of Governor Montenegro. The historical text, however, was that written by Henrique Santa Rosa, published in the Paes de Carvalho album in 1899, and, likewise, the Fidanza photographs that were reproduced in this album lack any kind of reference to the album edited in Pará in 1899. The French editors failed to credit the authors of the texts and the Italian photographer living in Pará.

The reproduction of the accounts of the European Explorers from the 18th and 19th Centuries served once more the function of emphasizing Pará’s importance in the world. Pará is an important state, for it attracted important European naturalists such as Humbolt on his Voyage aux Régions Équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent. Yet Humboldt never went to Pará. His travels in South America occurred between 1799 and 1803 and included the western and northern regions of the continent, a very small northern portion of the Amazon, but no part of Pará.

Montenegro prioritized landscape images of the cities of Pará. For each city the album only contained historical information related to the Portuguese presence in the state, making no mention of the indigenous or black populations that resided in the state. Once more it featured the innovations made in equipment and infrastructure: ports, watercraft, and electrical plants. Nature, and its economic potential, was also highlighted, as was technical equipment that represented economic development and modernity.

The representation elaborated and presented in the Montenegro album emphasizes history, valuing the past, which is always depicted in a positive light. Thus it is replete with historical architecture, public buildings and churches, and the statues and busts of commemorative monuments. The images of the indigenous peoples that do appear are related to nature rather than to society. Society is represented by the men who are government and business leaders. Women are merely portrayed above the caption society girls. Girls!! Women do not have names or surnames in the Montenegro album.

Image 12- Community Leaders in the 1908 Pará State Album: Augusto Montenegro Administration

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2.7. Belem, Pará Album: 1922 International Exposition for the Centennial of Independence

The 1922 International Exposition was held in Rio de Janeiro, capital of the Republic, as part of the celebrations commemorating one hundred years of Brazilian independence. Pará participated in this exposition and, according to the descriptions of the catalogs, was represented in the States Pavilion with products of its bountiful nature.

Pouca sed bene parata – this is the norm adopted by the state of Pará in commoration of the country’s Independence which exposed the multiple and varied natural elements which are available for international trade and the way they are used, industrially, for renewed growth of the big state, the most damaged by the European conflict at the moment in which its principal export product, formerly exploited, quickly lost value [rubber], due to increased competition and similar products in production centers.

Not even because of this should the northern state become discouraged, due to its natural wealth which gave the Amazon region many resources and advantages, as the following exposition which was exhibited in the beautiful centennial fair shows. (1922 Pará State Album).

Pará’s participation in the Rio de Janeiro exposition of 1922 was organized according to the classification of the nature of the products: seeds and textiles, wood in log form and furniture, and resins, fruits, and personal care products. Attention was given to a factory that made jarina buttons out of a palm tree seed known in Pará as vegetable ivory. This factory is no longer in operation but the seed is still used to make artisan handicrafts and in specialized jewelry stores that make jewels with seeds, gold, silver, and precious stones.

2.8. The 1939 Pará State Album: Industrial Pará.

Image 13 Cover of the 1922 Belém Album

Image 14 - Perseverança Factory:

Symbol of Pará Industry da The

Industrial Pará of 1939

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The Industrial Pará, organized and edited by Hildebrando Rodrigues in Belém, refers to the administration of José da Gama Malcher. New names are cited on the page that credits the album’s contributors. Photographers Eduardo Kratzensteins, Aristóbulo Titan, and Fritz Ackermann had not been previously cited in advertising material, nor were they well known in the Brazilian photographic community.

As in the case of the photographers, the entire technical team that collaborated on the creation of the 1939 album seems to be composed of a new batch of advertising professionals in Pará. The result is a new style with a focus on textual information in dialog with the images presented that are in tune with the federal government of Getúlio Vargas’ New State, which marked Brazilian history from 1930 to 1945.

The opening photograph in the 1939 album is of the President of the Republic of Brazil, Getúlio Vargas. It is followed by a photo of the First State Fair of Pará featuring Odilon Braga, the Minister of Agriculture, who represents a new ideology: the construction of a national identity in which each state is charged with the development of the country. If the previous albums had emphasized commerce in Pará, Malcher shifted this focus to an industrial one. The emphasis now is on work and Pará’s participation in national industry, beginning at the federal and followed by the state level, the latter of which highlighted activities that extract fruit and vegetable resources of value to the textile industry.

The question is which representation is created in this album. On displaying its municipalities possession of transport and energy infrastructures, those facilities that are basic to industrial activity, this album is presenting for the first time a national dialog: the integration of Pará with Brazil and the state’s role in contributing to the economic development of the country as whole. In all earlier versions of the album Pará was an integral part of the European markets, but in the 1930’s, with the development of the notion of Nation, Pará is presented as part of Brazil, commercially linked to Brazilian industries in the southeast of the country. The state albums reflect Vargas’ vision for the construction of a national identity.

3. Pará State Albums: A Comparative Analysis

A reading of the images and representations presented in the albums allows one to divide them into three categories: the first is composed of albums produced for participation in expositions, the second of albums edited by state governors, and the third of albums designed to promote ideals of national identity, the last of which were in keeping with the values of the New State.

The exposition albums, produced by Caccavoni, sold advertising space to commercial establishments interested in selling their wares in Pará, despite these advertisements being displayed in Europe. The albums produced by the governors, on the other hand, served the self-interests of these elected officials while simultaneously promoting the idea that Pará was a promising state, both for its urban facilities and its forest products. Yet the primary product being sold was that of a good government leader. The portraits of governors were the products that were for sale and the 1939 album propagated the nationalist ideals of the New State.

Image 15 - Cover of the Pará Album: Industrial Pará of 1939

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Our reading of the Pará images promoted in the albums suggests that these images do not necessarily reflect reality, but are instead carefully planned and elaborated representations supporting the interests of the dominant social groups that maintained their power through such image use.

According to CARVALHO (1991: 224) “the organization of the photographs in albums represents one more attempt to escape the static and ongoing representation of the natural world, instead registering the phases of transformation that are imposed on nature by the interference of work”. It was this transformation of work, in agriculture, cattle-raising, the taming of nature, urbanization, and architecture, that was in the albums.

Besides the interference in natural processes and the emphasis on work, the albums were designed to sell the images of community leaders as Portraits of Modernity. The albums sold the notion that belonging to the Malcher, Montenegro, or Bittencourt families, for example, meant belonging to a select group of people uniquely qualified to run the state.

The 1898 album was published nine years after the creation of the Republic (1889). Was this a coincidence? According to author Antônio Cândido in the film Raízes do Brasil, a documentary about the work of Sérgio Buarque de Holanda (April, 2004), the Republican Era signaled a significant change in how work was viewed in Brazil. Before, work was something slaves did, but after the creation of the Republic work became something done by white males, who were free and salaried, which gives value to those that engage in productive activities. It is this idea of work and local development that the state albums displayed, and thus it is important to emphasize the relationship between the fabrication of these albums and a desire to spread ideas through the representations of images created by state governments.

The state albums reinforce Antônio Cândido’s position. In the 1939 album the images of white men on farms, of technological innovations such as roads, railways, and electricity are presented as the conquests of a country that recognizes its potential and its regional differences, even as it goes through the process of economic growth and social and territorial consolidation.

Despite being published in different periods and by three distinct governments, the representations presented in the albums cited are not unique to one another. All paint pictures of some aspect of modernity, such as the domination of nature with the use of agricultural techniques and technological breakthroughs in the energy sector. Thus, we echo the ideas of CARVALHO (1991) when she makes reference to the commercialization of the notion of modernity by way of the production of images.

The primary systems of transportation in the Amazon from the end of the 19th Century to the beginning of the 20th Century were rivers, not railways or roads. Ports were photographed as a way to make the connection between the region and the rest of the world. Man’s domination of nature was symbolized with photographs of plantations of cocoa trees and curauá fibers (a vegetable fiber similar to jute that was used in the production of sacks for the export of coffee beans), while technological innovation was represented with electrical power generators. In this way, the photographs presented in the albums elicited the same themes: historical importance, economic potential, evidence of economic development, and members of society.

Image captions are another aspect of the projects of representation that may be discussed. The role of captions is not open to discussion; at most we can only discuss the presence or absence of photograph captions. The name of the photographer is often absent in the captions, as if this were not a relevant piece of information. For CARVALHO (1991: p.218) the caption discriminates the motive, removing it from anonymity. In other words, the caption must also be an object of interest in the investigation surrounding an image, for it specifies what should be focused on and directs the gaze and thoughts of the observer.

How does the caption discriminate? Who decides how to describe a photograph? Assigning a caption for an image can restrict the focus of the reader. The objective of assigning a caption is to restrict, direct, and captivate the gaze, just as a lack of references can also create a false impression of present time or of a lack of temporality. Important data such as the year, location where the image was exposed, and who created the exposure are not included in photographic captions, which allowed the same photographs

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to be used in three different albums and in distinct historical periods, creating an impression that the image was made for that specific album, rendering it up-to-date.

The production of albums served as a vehicle for the dissemination of ideas. In the case of the Pará State Albums, it showed that the state’s participation in the expositions did not create new cultural space in the city and did not bring to Belém the knowledge produced elsewhere in the world and presented at the expositions. Pará’s participation was limited to the display of forest products, its colonial heritage, and the production of government propaganda. In our evaluation, the albums represent the image of a society that has built itself over a shifting foundation of social representations, and that did not create the means to generate riches and economic development in the state. The participation of Pará in the National Expositions and World’s Fairs did not alter the economic base of the state, which remained dependent on the extraction of fruit and vegetable resources until the mid-20th Century, illustrating that propaganda devoid of content is an ineffectual instrument in the construction of a national identity.

Bibliographic References

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BATTISTI, Emilio. Arquitectura, Ideología y Ciencia: teoría y práctica en la disciplina del proyecto. Madrid: H. Blume Ediciones, 1980 [1975]. (Biblioteca Básica de Arquitectura).

KOSSOY, Boris. Dicionário Brasileiro: fotógrafos e ofício da fotografia no Brasil (1833-1910). São Paulo: Instituto Moreira Sales, 2002.

MIRANDA, Elis. Análise de uma paisagem luso-amazônica. IN: IX Simpósio Nacional de Geografia Urbana: Cidades: territorialidades, sustentabilidade e demandas sociais (Cd-Rom). Manaus, 18 a 21 de outubro de 2005.

MOSCOVICI, Serge. A representação Social de Psicanálise. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar, 1984.

_________________. Social representations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

REZENDE, Lívia Lazzaro. A circulação de imagens no Brasil oitocentista: uma história com marca registrada. IN: CARDOSO, Rafael (org.). O design brasileiro antes do design. São Paulo: Cosac Naify, 2005.

ROQUE, Fátima. Retrato dos Índios no Brasil - século XIX – a fotografia como fonte de pesquisa científica. IN: SIMÕES, Socorro (org.). Marajó: um arquipélago sob a ótica da cultura e da biodiversidade. Belém: UFPA, 2002.

TAMIR, M. Lês expositions internationales à traves lês ages. Paris: Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Paris, 1939. (These pour lê doctorat d’Université présentée à la Faculte des Lettres de L’Université de Paris).

VALENTIN, Andréas. A fotografia amazônica de George Huebner: um olhar entre o moderno e o selvagem. Disponível em www.studium.iar.unicamp.br/17/huebner/index.html (27/03/2006).