The iconographic discourse of Albert Kahn’s images in Rio de Janeiro (1909): a question of position

ABSTRACT

The article deals with a set of images, in autochrome, of the city of Rio de Janeiro. These images were produced in 1909 by Albert Kahn, creator of The Archives of the Planet project, which aimed to record the world in images and its variety of cultural aspects as it appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. The objective is to discuss how this set of images constitutes an iconographic discourse about the city of Rio de Janeiro from the analysis of the elements that appear there, the choices of angles, framings and points of view. The compositional analysis allowed us to interpret the construction of meaning in this discourse: a city built between the sea, the mountain, and the thick vegetation.

KEYWORDS:
Images; Albert Kahn; Rio de Janeiro; Iconographic discourse; Compositional analysis; The Archives of the Planet