Violence appeased: Slavery and coffee raising in the photography of Marc Ferrez (1882-1885)The article analyses the visual series consisting of 65 photographs of coffee plantations in the Paraíba Valley taken by Marc Ferrez between 1882 and 1885. By studying his social circuits, it can be seen that the visual discourse composed by these photos valorized coffee complexes as modern spaces of production and remains silent about the marks of slavery on the individuals registered. As a result of technical, cultural, and social choices, a ‘pacified slave’ is constructed in the figuration space of the photo, protected from social conflicts, abolitionist ideas, and slave resistance. In this way, Marc Ferrez’s images strongly fulfill the political function of forming and shaping a given memory about slavery, which by pacifying that extremely violent world, directly interested the ruling class of the Empire.
Keywords:
slavery; photography; Paraíba Valley
