Photography and urban landscape

photographic records on the implantation and expansion of the public transport system in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This article proposes to approach the photographic record as a historical document and as a manifestation phenomenon of the collective memory with case study of the public transport system implanted in the city of Rio de Janeiro during the Second Reign
(1840-1889). Through their photographic records, the photographers of the Imperial House aimed at a monumentalization of the urban space of Rio de Janeiro in the second half of the nineteenth century, when photography was a technical novelty that allowed a new way of apprehending the urban landscape. The article also makes use of a cartographic analysis, highlighting itineraries of urban transport lines, and aims to point out some technical and conceptual relationships between photography - from its beginnings - and urban landscape, which have resulted in documents that, over time were becoming monuments. Among the
occasional photographs and commissioned photographs, the various professional photographers, often in the service of the Brazilian empire, registered the city with its public transport system, as in the case of Rio de Janeiro, where several streetcar companies were also responsible for urban expansion formation of suburban districts in the north and south.