Photography in 19th century Brazil

Photography appeared in Brazil in the early years of the Brazilian Empire, dating back to the arrival of the daguerreotype in Rio de Janeiro in 1839, and to the Frenchman Hercules Florence.1

XIX century
One of the pioneers of photography in Brazil was the French painter and naturalist based in Brazil, Antoine Hercules Romuald Florence. Florence, who arrived in Brazil in 1824, settled in Campinas, where he carried out a series of inventions and experiments. In 1833, Florence photographed through the camera obscura with a glass plate and used sensitized paper for contact printing. Although totally isolated and ignorant of what his European contemporaries, Niépce and Daguerre, were doing, he obtained the photographic result, which he first called Photographie. Due to Florence's discovery, Brazil is considered one of the pioneers in photography.

The beginning of photography in Brazil is closely linked to Emperor Dom Pedro II, who was passionate about photography. Abbot Louis Compte, when he docked in Rio de Janeiro on January 16, 1840, showed the daguerreotype to Dom Pedro II.2 Dom Pedro II possibly became the first photographer under the age of 15 in Brazil, when in the In the same year, 1840, he acquired a daguerreotype in Paris.
Augustus Morand, American photographer (1815-1862), took the first photos of the imperial family in Brazil in 1840.

New technologies, such as wet collodion, came to Brazil through immigrants living in the country. Thus, portrait studios spread throughout the main Brazilian cities. The German Alberto Henschel opened offices in São Paulo, Recife, Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, becoming the first major businessman of Brazilian photography. Also notable in this period are Walter Hunnewell, who made the first photographic documentation of the Amazon; Marc Ferrez, who produced panoramic images of Brazilian landscapes; and Militão Augusto de Azevedo, the first to systematically portray the urban transformation of the city of São Paulo. Victor Frond, George Leuzinger, August Stahl and Felipe Fidanza also stand out.