O legado histórico nacional – memória, difusão e acesso: o caso da Brasiliana Fotográfica

Abstract

The Brasiliana Fotográfica portal was created in 2015, as a result of the partnership between the Biblioteca Nacional (Brazil) and the Instituto Moreira Salles. The portal is a means of electronic dissemination that makes available for free to the public photographic collections from various institutions, related to the period of Brazilian history that extends from 1830 to 1940. This thesis aims to analyze this portal, in other words, its construction, the agents and antecedents necessary for its realization, as well as the formation and impact of its collection in the dissemination of its images. The analysis developed here prioritizes some research axes. Initially, the projects and relationship networks involved in the construction of the portal were analyzed, as well as its founding institutions, Biblioteca Nacional and Instituto Moreira Salles. Another important focus was on the implications of the public-private partnership established between the institutions and its financing. Interviewing with the creators, curators and responsible for the content and maintenance of Brasiliana Fotográfica was fundamental in this process. In addition to the process of idealization and construction of the project, their daily operating and management practices were presented; the first collections that were part of the project, selection criteria established for the incorporation of photographs in the portal; and some of its possible readings. The creation of Brasilianas has antecedents in our history, which allowed the comparison with several experiences of similar character construction and the analysis of changes that occurred throughout history regarding the mode of collecting and understanding of the role played by important agents of this kind of collecting universe. I also investigate from the iconographic production carried out in the Brazilian colonial period and in the first three decades of the twentieth century, the way in which part of the construction of the Brazilian visual imagery was made from these works. Some theoretical approaches will be considered on the issue of national identity, considering the considerable critical contribution of postcolonial authors to the power relations inherent in the formation of nations. Finally, due to the prominent role of the use of new technologies, I analyze a differential of this new Brasiliana: the impacts of the diffusion of these collections through their digitization and availability online; the rights and questions involved; and, the factors that contributed to its strong dissemination among newspapers, memory institutions, researchers and students.