Modernités sud-américaines

Featuring the first color photographs of Brazil and an entire continent in turmoil at the beginning of the last century, this album unveils a little-known collection from the Musée Départemental Albert-Kahn through a selection of autochromes and stereoscopic plates produced in 1909, during an enigmatic voyage to South America. Escorted by interpreter-researchers, the images, which have long been mute, are given a voice.

The picture book retraces the transatlantic voyage of the philanthropic banker. A veritable photographic archive, these images bear witness to life aboard the crowded liners, reflecting the conditions of emigration at the beginning of the 20th century, urban centers with architecture inspired by European capitals, flourishing economic exchanges and, more simply, daily life.

The survey book accompanies and documents the iconographic selection in the travel book. It allows readers to follow the investigation carried out by documentalists, historians, collection and exhibition managers, semiologists and photographers, in order to identify and better understand the context in which the photographs were created. In this notebook, combining historical perspectives and image analysis, the reader is also invited to investigate and go in search of these young South American nations.