Urban inequality in photographic lenses: construction and withdrawal of social realities in industrial-urban context

• Grant number: 14/05666-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2014
• End date: May 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Visual Communication
• Principal Investigator: Eliza Bachega Casadei
• Grantee: Camila Calvo Pasin
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes e Comunicação (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to study the techniques of composition used by the photographers Dorothea Lange, Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine and Sebastião Salgado in their productions, and the construction of meaning engendered by this. The point in common between the four photographers it is the theme addressed, about the social inequality in the industrial and urban context. The methodology of Umberto Eco will be a tool for the analysis of images, by the study of elements and techniques of composition used to create the photography. Besides that, we will study the ideological purpose contained in the photographic work. There are two sides of the photography: the cultural and historic influences exerted by the photographer in imagery construction; and the capable of the photography to bring information about facts or realities of public interest with a lot of expressiveness, what helps to make the political and social demands visible. The objective of this article is to study the connection between the elements of composition used by the photographers and the political and social demands of the period, setting up a specific visibility of urban inequality. The article will analyze how the urban inequality was represented in the works from each photographer.