The writers set forth a range of photographic work produced in the north-Brazilian State of Pará. They describe photographs starting with the early records taken by 19th century travelers (undoubtedly a highly important research source), through more recent experimental photography, including work developed by the Caixa de Pandora collective. The article discusses a set of works and events that help us pinpoint more accurately, or modify (as the case may be) the illustrated history of Pará. This extensive overview tackles various matters: an outsider’s perspective on its mysterious nature; the importance of the anthropological research done on the countless indigenous tribes; the political nature and witness of these creative photographic works; and the fertile mix between the elements of local culture and formal experimentation. In addition, it presents the confrontation between the purist perspective that sought to preserve a local culture as free as possible from foreign influences and a more universalist focus that sought the modernizing mix of that same photographic work. The writers emphasize these two different perspectives throughout this text.  

Published in 1996, this article opened the way toward making a place for photography in the northern State of Pará for the first time. This was done in the form of an analysis performed by two researcher/curators in that Amazon State, Ângela Magalhães and Nadja Peregrino, both of whom have done extensive work in the field of art photography. 

A number of critics, curators and art historians were interested in the art produced in Brazil’s Amazon region from the 1990s into the early 2000s. Among the outstanding essays and articles they wrote are the essay “Mameluquices e cabanagens,” by Paulo Herkenhoff, published in the catalogue XI Salão Arte Pará (Belém: Fundação Rômulo Maiorana, 1992) [see doc. no. 1111170]; a text by Cláudio de La Rocque Leal, published in O Rosto e os Outros (Belém: Bonnie & Clyde, 1995); an introduction to Fotografia Contemporânea do Pará - Novas Visões (1998) by Ângela Magalhães, Paulo Máttar and Nadja Peregrino [doc. no. 1111167]; an essay written by the well-known professor Benedito Nunes, “Amazônia Reinventada,” published in the exhibition catalogue for the II Fotonorte, Amazônia, o olhar sem fronteiras (Belém: Funarte, 1998); and finally, the essay “Fotografia Paraense: Militância Política e Dissonância Poética,” by Rubens Fernandes Júnior, published in Fotografia contemporânea paraense: panorama 80/90, organized by Mariano Klautau Filho (Belém: SECULT, 2002) [doc. no. 1111168].