Photography
Original title: Fotografia
Short history of early photography in Madeira, where according to the Elucidário the first photographic experiments in Portuguese territory were made in 1848 by Vicente Gomes da Silva, followed by other early studios and photographers.
The first photographic experiments on Portuguese soil were made in Madeira by Vicente Gomes da Silva in 1848, when he studied the daguerreotype on silvered copper plate. José António Monteiro Teixeira later brought him a camera and plate holder from France, and Teixeira was the first person to be photographed on this island. The ‘Vicente’ studio opened in Rua João Tavira, on the southern corner of Rua do Bispo, producing hand-coloured positives on glass. In 1856 many people already stricken by the terrible cholera epidemic hurried there to have themselves photographed, so as to leave their portrait to their families.
When the widowed Empress of Brazil, Empress Amélie, was in Madeira, she sent João Francisco Camacho, who kept a bookbinder’s workshop in the same street, to Paris at her own expense to perfect his craft. While staying in that capital, however, he set about learning the art of photography, and on his return to Madeira in 1864 he set up a photographic studio in the street east of the Convent of São Francisco (St Francis of Assisi). It was the second studio to exist here. S.
In 1867 there was a photographic studio in a house next to the old Mercado de São João (St John's Market), belonging to Jacinto A. de Freitas and Aluísio Betencourt. Before that, around 1863, a lady born on this island, the daughter of the military engineer António Pedro de Azevedo (see that entry), produced various photographic works that were much admired here. This lady was Dona Amélia Augusta de Azevedo; she died at Idanha, near Lisbon, on 20 November 1914, aged 70.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 06-
Vicente Gomes da Silva made the first photographic experiments in Portuguese territory, in Madeira.
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A cholera epidemic, brought by Infantry Regiment No. 1, ravaged Madeira from July to October 1856, killing about ten thousand people by tradition and leaving many orphans. Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo, Luiz Albino Gonçalves and others served during it.
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Around 1863 Amélia Augusta de Azevedo produced much-admired photographs in Madeira.
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João Francisco Camacho opened Madeira's second photographic studio.
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A photographic studio of Jacinto A. de Freitas and Aluísio Betencourt operated beside the São João market in Funchal.
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Amélia Augusta de Azevedo died at Idanha, aged 70.
Place
Places mentioned · 08
Abroad
- Convent of St Francis
Funchal. Camacho's studio was on the street east of this convent.
The Convento de São Francisco was a Franciscan convent in Funchal founded in 1473, which marked the western limit of the city in 1508. Its church was demolished in 1865, and its fittings, books, tombstones and bones went to the Angústias cemetery, the museum and the Municipal Library. Its buildings briefly lodged prisoners until 1836 and housed the police in 1857.
- France
Country from which the first camera was brought.
France is a country where several Madeirans fought and died in the First World War, including Gabriel Rocha de Gouveia and João Paulo da Veiga Pestana. It was also a place of study, of exile and of refuge for Madeirans. It was the origin of the expedition behind the Saque dos Franceses and the intended destination of the fugitives in the Machim legend.
- Idanha
Portugal. Place near Lisbon where Amélia Augusta de Azevedo died.
Place near Lisbon where Amélia Augusta de Azevedo died.
- Paris
France. Where João Francisco Camacho learned photography.
The French capital, where Franco de Sousa settled and painted 'Ar livre', and where Juvenal Honório de Ornelas took his medical doctorate in 1834. Padre Luiz Gonçalves da Câmara studied there and met Loyola, and the Barão de Ornelas graduated, practised and died there.
- Rua do Bispo
Funchal. The «Vicente» studio stood at its southern corner with Rua João Tavira.
Rua do Bispo is the former name of Rua de Gomes Freire in Funchal, named after the bishops' residence and episcopal palace that stood there. Bishop D. Frei João do Nascimento died in a house on this street that later held the lyceum. The street also housed the Clube Recreio e Instrução and the «Vicente» photographic studio, and it was hit by a shell in 1916.
- Rua João Tavira
Funchal. Street where the «Vicente» studio opened.
Rua João Tavira is a street in Funchal that lay on the Unknown Soldier cortège route to the town hall. The «Vicente» photographic studio opened there, and the street was illuminated for the quincentenary of Madeira's discovery.
- São João Market
Funchal. A photographic studio stood next to it in 1867.
The Mercado de São João was a Funchal market opened in 1823, later known as the Feira Velha. A photographic studio stood next to it in 1867.
People
People mentioned · 08-
Co-owner of a photographic studio beside the old São João market in 1867.
- Amélia Augusta de Azevedo1844–1914
Madeiran woman who produced much-admired photographs around 1863; died at Idanha near Lisbon in 1914.
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Co-owner of a photographic studio beside the old São João market in 1867.
- António Pedro de Azevedo1814–1889
Military engineer, father of the early photographer Amélia Augusta de Azevedo.
- António Teixeira1795–1876
Brought a camera from France for Vicente Gomes da Silva and was the first person photographed in Madeira.
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Widowed Empress of Brazil who, while in Madeira, paid for João Francisco Camacho to train in Paris.
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Funchal bookbinder who learned photography in Paris and in 1864 opened Madeira's second photographic studio.
- Vicente Gomes da Silva1827–1906
Madeiran pioneer who made the first photographic experiments in Portuguese territory in 1848 and opened the «Vicente» studio in Funchal.