Abstract
This article examines photographic depictions of the social and economic relationship between the elite and working classes that appeared in the popular and literary press in Recife in the 1920s. Editors and publishers used photographs to document the rapid growth and modernization of the city. The content, framing, and juxtaposition of photographs, as well as the relationship between images and texts, created a contrast between rich and poor, black and white, and work and leisure which both underscored the importance of traditional social and economic relationships and advanced the ideals of a modern, liberal society. The author shows how the new visual medium of the photograph helped Recifenses process and negotiate the transformations of the 1920s. The presence of the working classes and poor in magazines marketed to the middle and upper classes suggests that historians should examine the social, political, and textual contexts that frame photographs in order to understand the formation of individual and group identities as well as the ways in which changing social and political ideals are expressed visually.
Resumo
Abstract
This article examines photographic depictions of the social and economic relationship between the elite and working classes that appeared in the popular and literary press in Recife in the 1920s. Editors and publishers used photographs to document the rapid growth and modernization of the city. The content, framing, and juxtaposition of photographs, as well as the relationship between images and texts, created a contrast between rich and poor, black and white, and work and leisure which both underscored the importance of traditional social and economic relationships and advanced the ideals of a modern, liberal society. The author shows how the new visual medium of the photograph helped Recifenses process and negotiate the transformations of the 1920s. The presence of the working classes and poor in magazines marketed to the middle and upper classes suggests that historians should examine the social, political, and textual contexts that frame photographs in order to understand the formation of individual and group identities as well as the ways in which changing social and political ideals are expressed visually.
- © 2016 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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