As fotografias estereoscópicas seculares do potiguar Manoel Dantas

Abstract

In this Case Study we propose to investigate the practice of stereoscopic photography by the Brazilian journalist and jurist, born in the interior of Rio Grande do Norte, Manoel Dantas (1867-1924). In its unprecedented collection, there are 2,146 images that have withstood time, produced between 1900 and 1924, with an amateur character. Through these primary sources, consisting of photos, personal diary, among other documents, as well as using secondary sources, such as periodicals and bibliographic contributions, we carried out a historical survey about the uses, functions, and mapping of access to equipment and supplies of photography stereoscopic by Manoel Dantas. In this sense, we searched in authors such as Boris Kossoy (2002, 2007, 2014), Giséle Freund (1995) and Ana Maria Mauad (2008) for theoretical contributions regarding the historical study of photography. As for aspects related to the use of stereoscopic photography, we base ourselves on the works of Maria Inez Turazzi (1995) and Inácio Parente (1999). Observing the approximation of the research objectives with the methodology of Iconographic Analysis by Kossoy (2014), we focused on the images to identify the constitutive aspects of a photograph: the photographer, the technology used by him and the subjects that were registered. Given the high number of images, we performed a categorization based on themes, subthemes, and captions (KOSSOY, 2014). After this survey, we delimited a cut so that it would be possible, from the best-preserved specimen, to exemplify each of these categories. During the exploratory research, we noticed the approximation of the amateur photographer activity with the other professional and personal aspects of Manoel Dantas' life. The survey of his biography, carried out in the light of historical contextualization, helped us to understand the way in which this countryman was elevated to a restricted intellectual and economic elite of the beginning of the 20th century, giving clues about how he paid for photography and where he obtained information about the chosen technology. Despite the study being inserted in the scope of the history of visual media, based on the need to establish, throughout history, the media milestones that largely explain our consumption of devices, visual and tactile, we envision its contribution focused on gift. This is because three-dimensional effect devices remain incorporated in our lives, due to the human demand to experience the world in an increasingly sensory way.