A belle époque carioca: imagens da modernidade na obra de Augusto Malta. (1900-1920)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to perceive the way as, in Rio de Janeiro of belle époque, the idea of Carioca, the modernity and its counterpoints are constructed, thought and given to understand through the photography of Augusto Malta. We aim, therefore, to understand as Malta, while social person, presents the Carioca society elaborating representations through photographic images. We intend to show as these images describe the reality of belle époque Carioca, not as a mirror, but as a “vision of world”, among other possibilities as an interpretation of what the society was at the moment of click of the photographer or, of what it could be in the future. We understand, thus, the workmanship of the photographer Augusto Malta as one particular “visual proof” of the Carioca context of belle époque, which was be always between two ways of existence: as direct, objective message, culturally established by its origin of applied technology and, apparently, without necessity of decodings, and as a polissemic message, ambiguous, that give us the refraction of the reality.