[hcarvalhoalves]

These recently recovered photos were made between 1860 and 1885, about the time slavery got abolished in Brazil, and depict the soon-to-be-free slaves. The emperor (Dom Pedro II) was a photography enthusiast and sponsored some photographers to depict the daily life of the empire back then.

I'm posting here not only because of the oddity, but I've found the pictures are surprisingly good in terms of artistic and technical quality. It's also close to the heart, as it's my knowledge my grandfather was the first generation to be born not in slavery.





See more photos at:

10 raras fotografias de escravos brasileiros feitas 150 anos atrás | História Ilustrada

---

Last edited by hcarvalhoalves; 04-25-2014 at 08:29 PM.

[bass3587]

Good post. Post more if you have them.

[6BQ5]

Those are indeed very good pictures with good IQ and composition, especially for their time. I like these historic kinds of photographs because it shows how life was in another time. That was "normal" back then. Today we have a new "normal". Who knows what people will think of us in 100+ years? I look back at photographs from the 1980s and think that's historic!

[OregonJim]

Something bothers me about that first image. Setting aside the IQ, which is almost too high given the proposed age, look at the waterfall. The motion blur suggests a shutter speed in the 1 to 3 second range, yet the water around the man to the left (which is also moving) has been frozen tack sharp. And, the men themselves show not even the slightest blur during that 'long' exposure. Something does not add up...

[adwb]

Don't know about the water but it was common for people to hold Poses for long times in the days of plate film.

[manntax]

Don't know about the water but it was common for people to hold Poses for long times in the days of plate film.

And this isa precisely what happen then - they probably had an exposure about 1/2 s. long so it wasn't that difficult in contrary to some other photographs that I knew people were posing without any move for even several minutes !
--manntax

[6BQ5]

Don't know about the water but it was common for people to hold Poses for long times in the days of plate film.

Yes. That is why nobody smiled in those first early photos. If you started smiling then you may have to hold it for many minutes!! That is harder than most people imagine.

[manntax]

Yes. That is why nobody smiled in those first early photos. If you started smiling then you may have to hold it for many minutes!! That is harder than most people imagine.

Good observation ! Never thought of that ! And indeed it is hard - I just had a go - not possible without getting shaky for more that 1 -2 sec for me !
--manntax

---------- Post added 04-25-14 at 10:01 AM ----------

I just had a good look at the fist photo and to be honest I am stunned with the quality of this composition. But what amazes me most is how flexible these large format cameras are - I mean look at the shallow depth of field - yet so selectively bent as it clearly isn't perpendicularly to the field of view of a lens - or film plane I should say ? I mean this photo displays a quality that our super duper modern DSLR cannot even touch .. clearly if one wants to go for *art* in photography - the medium format is the smallest that one should look at - preferable large format with those amazing flexible bellows and so on.
For us poor folks with modern cameras looks like only post processing saves our attempts to go beyond taking ordinary snaps ...
--manntax

[noelpolar]

Good observation ! Never thought of that ! And indeed it is hard - I just had a go - not possible without getting shaky for more that 1 -2 sec for me !
--manntax

---------- Post added 04-25-14 at 10:01 AM ----------

I just had a good look at the fist photo and to be honest I am stunned with the quality of this composition. But what amazes me most is how flexible these large format cameras are - I mean look at the shallow depth of field - yet so selectively bent as it clearly isn't perpendicularly to the field of view of a lens - or film plane I should say ? I mean this photo displays a quality that our super duper modern DSLR cannot even touch .. clearly if one wants to go for *art* in photography - the medium format is the smallest that one should look at - preferable large format with those amazing flexible bellows and so on.
For us poor folks with modern cameras looks like only post processing saves our attempts to go beyond taking ordinary snaps ...
--manntax

How many of us reading this just tried to hold a smile........go on...admit it!

[Tom S.]

Moved to proper area. Per the guidelines, General Talk section is for Non Photographic discussions only.

[jmerchant]

How many of us reading this just tried to hold a smile........go on...admit it!

[Edgar_in_Indy]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Even though I live in the US, my wife is from Brazil, and I've always found Brazilian history interesting.

One thing the picture made me think about is how Brazil has been able to move past the history of slavery and issues of race, whereas it seems to be an obsession today in the US, and something we can never put behind us. This despite the fact that the US abolished slavery decades earlier than Brazil, and Brazil was the last country in the West to do so. And Brazil actually had more total slaves than the US, and far more slaves per capita in comparison to the overall population. But in Brazil today, people don't seem to worry too much about race or skin color.

(Please note that I've never actually been to Brazil, but these are the impressions I have gotten from watching Brazilian TV and from talking to my wife and her family members.)

[hcarvalhoalves]

just had a good look at the fist photo and to be honest I am stunned with the quality of this composition. But what amazes me most is how flexible these large format cameras are - I mean look at the shallow depth of field - yet so selectively bent as it clearly isn't perpendicularly to the field of view of a lens - or film plane I should say ? I mean this photo displays a quality that our super duper modern DSLR cannot even touch .. clearly if one wants to go for *art* in photography - the medium format is the smallest that one should look at - preferable large format with those amazing flexible bellows and so on.
For us poor folks with modern cameras looks like only post processing saves our attempts to go beyond taking ordinary snaps ...
--manntax

The first photo seems to have been carefully planned and staged to make the most out of the scene and the equipment. Large format has a quality of it's own.

[JayBee451]

Thanks for sharing, Great pictures.
Like your link, just wish I could read it.

[hcarvalhoalves]

Thanks for posting the pictures. Even though I live in the US, my wife is from Brazil, and I've always found Brazilian history interesting.

One thing the picture made me think about is how Brazil has been able to move past the history of slavery and issues of race, whereas it seems to be an obsession today in the US, and something we can never put behind us. This despite the fact that the US abolished slavery decades earlier than Brazil, and Brazil was the last country in the West to do so. And Brazil actually had more total slaves than the US, and far more slaves per capita in comparison to the overall population. But in Brazil today, people don't seem to worry too much about race or skin color.

(Please note that I've never actually been to Brazil, but these are the impressions I have gotten from watching Brazilian TV and from talking to my wife and her family members.)

Racism exists and is a issue in Brazil. That said, it's also silly, because a large portion of the population can trace it's roots back to a slave, and the ones that don't are first or second generation born from European/Asian immigrants of the early 20th century, in which case talking shit about race would cut both ways. All-in-all, race-superiority idiots don't find a fertile ground here, I believe the absolute majority Brazilians take pride on their multi-ethnical background.

A little history for the inclined:

Even though slavery got totally abolished by an imperial decree only in 1888, it was a process. In 1850 human traffic was already prohibited, and during the next years other decrees were made to free special cases (slaves older than 65, newborns, etc.). Members and friends of the royal family went as far as buying slaves from owners to free them. The princess personal counselor was a black civil engineer.

It took long because Brazil was mostly agricultural back then, so the plantation owners had immense political power. So much power in fact that one year after the princess abolished slavery the republican party (mostly plantation owners) articulated a coup-d'etat to turn Brazil into a republic in an attempt to reinstate slavery. They failed at it, but the illegitimate republic was kept, which proved to be the cause of much political instability and power struggles... The result is that Brazil only consolidated it's democracy in 1986 (!!!), and it's still shaky and plagued by corruption.