José Christiano de Freitas Henriques Júnior (Ilha das Flores, Azores Archipelago, Portugal 1832 - Asunción, Paraguay 1902)
Photographer.
He immigrates to Brazil in 1855 and settles in Maceió, where he begins working as a photographer. Probably in the early 1860s, he moves to Rio de Janeiro and joins Fernando Antônio de Miranda in the Photographia do Commercio studio. Between 1866 and 1875, he is a partner of Bernardo José Pacheco in the firm Christiano Jr. & Pacheco, in the same city. During this period, he portrays people of African origin, enslaved or freed, focusing on facial features or simulating their professional activities in the studio. In addition to these images, his studio sells portraits on glass (ambrotypes), reproductions of engravings, landscapes for the stereoscope,1 enlarged photographs on handkerchiefs, porcelain and ivory, and cartes-de-visite of monarchs, military men, men of letters and others. In 1866, he wins a bronze medal at the National Exhibition in Rio de Janeiro. In the late 1860s, he moves to Buenos Aires, where his business prospers and he comes to run two studios at the same time. He wins gold medals at the National Exhibition in Córdoba, in 1871, and at the Scientific Exhibition in Buenos Aires, in 1876. In 1876 and 1877, he publishes two editions of the albums Vistas y Costumbres de la República Argentina. In the late 1870s, he sells his establishment and his collection of negatives to the English photographer Alejandro S. Witcomb (1835 - 1905). Christiano Júnior is considered one of the most important photographers working in Argentina in the 19th century.
Critical Commentary
During the period he lives in Rio de Janeiro, José Christiano Júnior's most significant and best-known photographic output is the collection of cartes-de-visite of Africans and their descendants, enslaved or freed, made in the 1860s. At that time, the city has approximately 266,000 inhabitants, 110,000 of whom are slaves, the largest urban concentration of captive workers since the end of the Roman Empire.
Christiano Júnior brings the slaves into the studio, sometimes portraying them in front of backdrops painted with European woodland landscapes. The images focus on facial features in close-up or show people full-length in situations that simulate their professional activities. Above all, the pictures show porters and the so-called "negros de ganho" [slaves for hire], men and women who work as street vendors in Rio de Janeiro and whose earnings are handed over to their owners at the end of the day. Street vendors sell products such as water, baskets, flowers, fruit, vegetables, poultry, books, fabrics, shoes, knives, water jugs, crystal, porcelain, sweets, rolls and cakes, carried on their heads in tins or boxes.
An advertisement placed by Christiano Júnior's studio in the Almanaque Laemmert in 1866 makes clear who the buyers of his photographs are. Among other services, the photographer offers a "Variada colecção de costumes e typos de pretos, cousa muito própria para quem se retira para Europa" [Varied collection of customs and types of blacks, a thing most suitable for those leaving for Europe]. What is peculiar about these images is that most of the slaves are not shown as individuals, but as "types of blacks" or generic examples of the activities they perform. The cards bear captions such as "African types", "Basket-maker slave", "Chair-seller slave", etc. The subjects are almost always portrayed standing in the center of the frame, from the front or in profile, so as to clearly show their physical features, their clothing and their work tools.
In the 19th century, positivist science regards everything that could be seen in a photograph as necessarily true. The portraits centered on the faces of black people also serve the physiognomy studies common at the time, and for this reason, against white backgrounds that denote impartiality, these portraits have a scientific connotation.
The cartes-de-visite of the masters are a kind of social introduction of the sitter. Since slaves are in no position to own such objects, the photographs of black men and women are like postcards, showing exotic characters to Eurocentric eyes. In the photographs signed by Christiano Júnior, the black subjects seem coerced. The poses are stiff and few models look into the lens, and when they do, some have a frightened expression. The images convey the idea of disciplined slaves, submissive to their master. They show the pacified captive, with no reference to escapes, nor to the tensions created by the strong abolitionist movement of the time.
His images are important sources for research in history, anthropology and sociology focused on social relations in 19th-century Brazil. Although made in the studio, alongside the engravings of Debret (1768 - 1848), they help reconstruct everyday life on the streets of 19th-century Rio de Janeiro. In addition, the photographs draw attention to one of the paradoxes of the society of the time: Brazil has a monarch who promotes the arts and sciences and is seen as a promise of wealth and development, yet it is the last Western nation to abolish black slavery.
From the 1870s onward, after moving to Argentina, Christiano Júnior documents the inhabitants, customs and landscape of Buenos Aires and of provinces in the country's interior. Because of these records, he is considered one of the most important photographers working in Argentina in the 19th century.
It is worth stressing that the authorship of photographs taken at that time is always controversial, since studios employ assistants and images are often sold by different companies. Even if the cartes-de-visite bear the inscription of Christiano Júnior's establishment, it is not possible to determine whether they are always made by the same author.
Note
1 A binocular device into which a card is placed bearing two photographs of the same scene taken from slightly different angles, to create the illusion of three-dimensionality.
Critiques
"Besides being a photographer, following the tradition of this profession, he was a painter, draftsman and writer. Some years earlier he had owned a photography studio in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with a certain Pacheco, and now, perhaps in search of fortune, he had decided to apply his knowledge here.
Naturally, his goals were fully achieved and he soon managed to impose his personality, and his up-to-date command of the most varied techniques from the most diverse parts of the world was much talked about among his clients and fellow professionals.
In his ten highly productive years of activity as a photographer, he produced a remarkable testimony of the Buenos Aires of his time, also traveling through the interior of the country to record what he himself considered a priority: 'the monumental and artistic Argentine Republic'."
Juan Gómez
Gómez, Juan. La fotografía en la Argentina: su historia y evolución en el siglo XIX: 1840-1899. p. 78-79.
"In portraying the urban blacks of Rio de Janeiro, enslaved or freed, the photographer Christiano Junior removed them from their own contexts of life and work. He created situations and shaped gestures, placing these men and women in the condition of objects before an artificial setting, with only a few elements recalling each one's trade and activities, thus turning them into photographic models.
Such photographs were advertised by the photographer as a large collection of customs and types of blacks, a thing suitable for those leaving for Europe. Photographs with the same spirit of exploiting the image of black people (enslaved or freed) and of Indigenous people, whether for pseudoscientific purposes (in line with the racist theories, fashionable in Europe, that preached the biological superiority of the white man) or as 'illustrations' of the exotic beings who inhabited this part of the New World (ideal 'souvenirs' for tourists), were also produced by other photographers. These images, constructed in their content and standardized in their presentation (through the 'carte-de-visite', in vogue at the time), were taken to Europe as 'mementos of Brazil', thus reinforcing stereotypes and feeding myths."
Boris Kossoy
Kossoy, Boris. Estética, memória e ideologia fotográficas: decifrando a realidade interior das imagens do passado. Acervo: Revista do Arquivo Nacional. v. 6, n. 1/2, p. 17.
Collections
Acervo Museu Histórico Nacional - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Coleção Gilberto Ferrez - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Acervo Instituto Brasileiro do Patrimônio Cultural - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Acervo Museu Imperial - Petrópolis RJ
Acervo Instituto Moreira Salles - São Paulo SP
Group Exhibitions
1866 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Exhibition, at Casa da Moeda - honorable mention
1871 - Córdoba (Argentina) - Córdoba Scientific Exhibition, with the series entitled Vistas y Costumbres de la República Argentina - gold medal
1876 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Buenos Aires Scientific Exhibition, with the series entitled Vistas y Costumbres de la República Argentina - gold medal
Posthumous Exhibitions
1981 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Fotografie Lateinamerika von 1860 bis Heute, at Kunsthaus Zürich
1982 - Berlin (Germany) - Fotografie Lateinamerika von 1860 bis Heute
1982 - Madrid (Spain) - Fotografie Lateinamerika von 1860 bis Heute
1982 - Rotterdam (Netherlands) - Fotografie Lateinamerika von 1860 bis Heute
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Dom Pedro II and Photography in Brazil, at Casa do Bispo
1986 - Paris (France) - La Photographie Brésilienne au Dix-Neuvième Siècle, at Mairie du XIVe Arrondissement
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Photographs. D. Thereza Christina Maria Collection, at Biblioteca Nacional
1988 - São Paulo SP - Black People in 19th-Century Brazilian Iconography: The European View, at Faculdade de Geografia e História da USP
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The Restored Image, at MNBA
1997 - Campinas SP - Brazil in the Time Machine: A Reference Collection of the History of Photography, at Itaú Cultural
1997 - Penápolis SP - Brazil in the Time Machine: A Reference Collection of the History of Photography, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1997 - São Paulo SP - Brazil in the Time Machine: A Reference Collection of the History of Photography, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Brazil in the Time Machine: A Reference Collection of the History of Photography, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Brasília DF - Brazilian Like Me, Like Who?, at Ministério das Relações Exteriores
1998 - Brasília DF - Brazil in the Time Machine: A Reference Collection of the History of Photography, at Galeria Itaú Cultural
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil Rediscovered, at Paço Imperial
1999 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Like Me, Like Who?, at MAB. Salão Cultural
2000 - Brasília DF - The 19th Century in Brazilian Photography: Pedro Corrêa do Lago Collection, at Ministério das Relações Exteriores. Palácio do Itamaraty
Source: Itaú Cultural
