The representation of the insane and madness in the images of four twentieth century brazilian photographers: Alice Brill, Leonid Streliaev, Cláudio Edinger, Cláudia Martins

Author(s)

Tatiana Fecchio da Cunha Gonçalves

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Artes
• Defense date: 2010-01-26

Examining board members

Claudia Valladão de Mattos Avolese; Lygia Arcuri Eluf; Luciano Migliaccio; Annateresa Fabris; Leticia Coelho Squeff

• Advisor: Claudia Valladão de Mattos Avolese

Abstract

This thesis discusses ways in which the representation of madmen and madness was built on images taken by four photographers who created photographic essays in Brazilian psychiatric hospitals during the twentieth-century - Alice Brill (1950), Leonid Streliaev (1971), Claudio Edinger (1989 -90) and Claudia Marshall (1997) - in order to unveil underlying social concepts about madness, while also highlighting specific elements that were naturalized in these constructions. The method was based on content analysis and iconographic research, We studied the traditional ways Western culture represents the insane in visual productions, and the implications raised by photographic techniques. We examined the history of transmission and reception of the images and the cultural contexts in which they emerged, so as to understand concepts and assumptions underlying the formal construction of the representation of the mad in the images of the photographers that were selected for this study. The results showed that traditional elements were accessed by the photographers, as a means of perpetuating characteristic modes of understanding diversity. Nevertheless, we observed that new compositional elements emerged, related to specific contexts. By questioning the naturalized ways that society has come to apprehend madness, by critically discussing the construction of images of madmen that circulate in society, our aim was to contribute to the unveiling of typified forms of representation of the mad and madness. (AU)