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the adventure of traveling to a tropical land, the fi rst
generation of foreign photographers found Brazil a virgin
market. This situation determined much of the genres
practiced in early Brazilian photography, mainly portrai-
ture and landscape. And despite the technical diffi culties
of the times, they left some valuable bodies of work, still
to be appreciated by a wider public. It is believed that
the total production of photography in Brazil, in the 19th
century was much bigger than what we know now. It is
possible that many works were taken by the photogra-
phers back to their home countries or simply deteriorated
due to neglect in public or private archives.
Many of these pioneer photographers spent just a few
months or years in Brazil, establishing studios in urban
centers and/or traveling through the provinces, in the
search of casual clients. In the 1840s and 1850s, when
the daguerreotype reigned as the dominant photographic
technique, some of the most outstanding photographers
were the American Augustus Morand, the German
Francisco Napoleão Bautz, the Swiss Louis-Abraham
Buvelot, the Portuguese Joaquim Insley Pacheco and
the Hungarians Birayi and Kornis. Other exponents in
the dawn of Brazilian photography were the German
Revert Henrique Klumb, an early practitioner pioneer
of stereoscopic photography in Brazil, and Frenchman
Victor Frond, who in 1861 published the album ‘Brazil
pittoresco,’ the fi rst book with photographs made in
Latin America.
In the 19th century, Rio de Janeiro, the capital of the
Empire and a vibrant economical and artistic center,
became invariably the main spot for making, selling
and learning photography in Brazil. Also in Rio, pho-
tography made a very early appearance in the traditional
arts frame, taking part in the 3rd General Exhibition ofthe Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, in 1842. On that
occasion, owing to the lack of a specifi c category, like
painting and sculpture, daguerreotypes were simply
shown in the offi ce of the Academy’s director, the French
artist Felix Emile Taunay.
In addition, the business of photography also fl our-
ished beyond the capital. Thanks to the brave initia-
tive of a few individuals, it also spread out in more
provincial cities and villages like São Paulo, Salvador,
Porto Alegre, Recife and Belém. Some of the fi nest
photographers who worked outside Rio are Albert
Frisch, Militão Augusto Azevedo, Alberto Henschel,
Guilherme Gaensly, Charles DeForest Fredricks, and
Benjamin R. Mulock with his work on the building of
the Bahia Railway.
From Rio de Janeiro emerged probably the most
prolifi c and talented Brazilian Photographer of the
19th century, Marc Ferrez. Son of the artist Zepherine
Ferrez, who came to Brazil in 1816 as member of the
French Artistic Mission, Marc Ferrez learned his pro-
fession with German Franz Keller, from the prestigious
studio Casa Leuzinger) and was appointed in 1860
as the offi cial photographer to the Court. In 1865, he
opened his own studio in Rio downtown, at the age of
21 years old. Ferrez produced an extraordinary amount
of photographs, mainly portraiture and topographical
work, the result of 50 years of intense activity. He is
best remembered for his stunning views of Rio de
Janeiro, but Ferrez was also an indefatigable traveler
and recorded with his camera images of the large and
diverse country.
It is a descendant of Ferrez, the historian Gilberto
Ferrez, who can be regarded as the fi rst great researcher
of 19th century photography in Brazil. Gilberto FerrezBRAZIL
Ferrez, Marc. The Curved Bridge of the
St. Anthony River Aqueduct.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los
Angeles © The J. Paul Getty Museum.