José Christiano de Freitas Henriques Júnior (Ilha das Flores, Archipelago of Azores, Portugal 1832 - Asunción, Paraguay 1902)
Photographer.
immigra for the Brazil in 1855 and settled in Maceió, where he began to act as a photographer. Probably in the early 1860s, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, and joined Fernando Antônio de Miranda at the Photographia do Commercio studio. Between 1866 and 1875, he is a partner of Bernardo José Pacheco at Christiano Jr. & Pacheco, in the same city. At the time, it portrays people of African origin, slaves or freed, focusing on facial characteristics or simulating their professional activities in the studio. In addition to these images, his studio sells portraits in glass (ambrotype), reproductions of engravings, landscapes for stereoscope, 1 enlarged photographs on scarves, porcelain and ivory, monarch cards, military, literati and others. In 1866, he won a bronze medal at the National Exhibition of Rio de Janeiro. At the end of the 1860s, he moved to Buenos Aires, where his business prospers and maintains, simultaneously, two studios. Conquest of gold medal at the National Exhibition of Córdoba, in 1871, and at the Scientific Exhibition of Buenos Aires, in 1876. In 1876 and 1877, he published two editions of the albums Vistas y Costumbres de la Argentine Republic. In the late 1870s, he sold 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 Comment
In the period in which he lives in Rio de Janeiro, the most significant and well-known photographic production of José Christiano Júnior is the collection of cards of Africans and their descendants, slaves or freedmen, held in the 1860s. At that time, the population of the city is approximately 266 thousand inhabitants, with 110 thousand slaves, which represents the largest urban concentration of workers captives since the end of the Roman Empire.
Christiano Júnior brings the slaves into the studio, sometimes portraying them in front of backgrounds painted with landscapes of European forests. The images focus on facial features in close-up or show the full-body people in situations that simulate their professional activities. The records show, above all, porters and the so-called "blacks of gain", men and women who work as salespeople on the streets of Rio de Janeiro and whose profit, at the end of the day, is delivered to the owners. In street commerce, products such as water, baskets, flowers, fruits, vegetables, birds, books, fabrics, shoes, knives, moringas, crystals, porcelain, sweets, threads and cakes transported to the head in cans or boxes are sold in the street commerce.
An announcement published by Christiano Júnior's studio in 1866, in the Almanaque Laemmert, explains who the consumers of his photos are. Among other services, the photographer offers a "varied collection of customs and typos of blacks, something very suitable for those who retire to Europe". The peculiarity of these images lies in the fact that most slaves are not shown in their condition as an individual, but as "types of black" or generic examples of the activities performed by them. The cards have captions such as "African types", "Casteiro slave", "Slave seller of chairs", etc. People are almost always portrayed standing and in the center of the frame, facing or in profile, in order to clearly show their physical characteristics, clothing and work instruments.
In the 19th century, positivist science considers everything that could be visualized in a photograph as something necessarily true. The portraits concentrated on the faces of blacks also serve the studies of physiognomony common at the time and, therefore, on white backgrounds that denote impartiality, these portraits have a scientific connotation. Gentlemen are a kind of social presentation of the portrayed. As slaves are not able to possess such objects, the photos of black men and women are like postcards - showing exotic characters to the Eurocentric eyes. In the photographs signed by Christiano Júnior, the blacks seem to be coerced. The poses are strict and few models face the lens, and when they do, some have a scared feature. The images denote the idea of disciplined and submissive slaves to the master. show the pacified captive, not referring to the escapes, nor to the tensions created by the strong abolitionist movement of the time.
Its images are important sources of study for research in the areas of history, anthropology and sociology, which have social relations in 19th century Brazil as a focus. Even made in the studio, alongside the engravings of Debret (1768 - 1848), help in the reconstruction of everyday life in the streets of Rio de Janeiro in the 19th century. In addition, the photos draw attention to one of the paradoxes of society at the time: Brazil has a monarch that encourages the arts and sciences, it is seen as a promise of wealth and development, however, it is the last Western nation to abolish black slavery.
From the 1870s onwards, after moving to Argentina, Christiano Júnior documents the inhabitants, customs and landscape of Buenos Aires and provinces in the interior of the country. By these records, he is considered one of the most important photographers who work in Argentina in the 19th century.
It is important to highlight that the authorship of photographs taken at that time is always controversial, as the studios employ assistants and, often, the images are marketed by different companies. Even if the cards-de-visit carry the registration of the establishment of Christiano Júnior, it is not possible to check if they are always made by the same author. slightly different angles to create the illusion of three-dimensionality.
Criticism
"In addition to being a photographer, following the tradition in this profession, he was a painter, designer and writer. January a few years ago, in partnership with a certain Pacheco, and now, perhaps in search of fortune, he had decided to apply his knowledge here. Techniques from the most diverse parts of the world was much talked about among his clients and his colleagues by profession.
In his ten very productive years of activity as a photographer, he produced a remarkable testimony about the Buenos Aires of his time, still touring the interior of to record what he himself considered as 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.
"The photographer Christiano Junior when portraying the urban blacks of Rio de Janeiro, slaves or manumissions, 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 in the face of an artificial scenario, with only a few elements remembering the crafts and activities of each one, thus transforming them into photographic models. withdraws to Europe Photographs with the same spirit of exploitation of the image of black people (slave or freed) and the Indian, or for pseudoscientific purposes (due to racist theories that preached the biological superiority of the white man, in the fashion of Europe), or as 'Illustrations' of the exotic beings that inhabited this part of the New World ('souvenirs' ideal for tourists) were also produced by other photographers. These images, built on their content and standardized in their presentation (through the 'Carte-de-Visite', in vogue at the time), were taken to Europe as a 'Brazilian memory', thus reinforcing stereotypes and feeding myths".
Boris Kossoy
Kossoy, Boris. Aesthetics, memory and photographic ideology: deciphering the inner reality of the images of the past. Collection: Journal of the National Archives. v. 6, no. 1/2, p. 17.
Cerves
National Historical Museum Collection - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Gilberto Ferrez Collection - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Brazilian Institute of Cultural Heritage - Rio de Janeiro RJ
Collection Museum Imperial - Petrópolis RJ
Instituto Moreira Salles - São Paulo SP
Collective exhibitions
1866 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd National Exhibition, at the Casa da Moeda - Honorable Mention
1871 - Córdoba (Argentina) - Scientific Exhibition of Córdoba, with a series titled Vistas y Costumbres de la Republica Argentina - Gold medal
1876 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) Buenos Aires, with a series titled Vistas y Costumbres de la Republica Argentina - Gold Medal
Posthetic exhibitions
1981 - Zurich (Switzerland) - Photographer Lateinamerika von 1860 Bis Heute, Na Kunsthaus Zürich
1982 - Berlin (Germany) - Photographer Lateinamerika von 1860 Bis Heute
1982 - Madrid (Spain) - Photographie Lateinamerika von 1860 Bis Heute
1982 - Rotterdam (Holland) - Photographie Lateinamerika von 1860 Bis Heute
1985 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Dom Pedro II and photography in Brazil, at Casa do Bispo Siecle, Na Mairie du Xive Arrondissement
1987 - Rio de Janeiro RJ stock photos. Collection D. Thereza Christina Maria, at the National Library
1988 - São Paulo SP - The black in Brazilian iconography of the 19th century: the European vision, at the Faculty of Geography and History of USP
1994 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - The restored image, in the MNBA
1997 - Campinas SP - Brazil in the time machine: reference collection of the history of photography, at Itaú Cultural
1997 - Penápolis SP - Brazil in the time machine: reference collection of the history of photography, in the Itaú Cultural Gallery
1997 - São Paulo SP - Brazil in the time machine: reference collection of the history of photography, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Belo Horizonte MG - Brazil in the time machine: reference collection of the history of photography, at Itaú Cultural
1998 - Brasília DF - Brazilian like me, like me?, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1998 - Brasília DF - Brazil in the time machine: reference collection of the history of photography, at the Itaú Cultural Gallery
1999 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Brazil rediscovered, in the Imperial Palace
1999 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian like me, like who?, in the MAB. Cultural Hall
2000 - Brasília DF - The 19th century in Brazilian photography: Pedro Corrêa do Lago Collection, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Itamaraty Palace
Source: Itaú Cultural
