Photographer Unknown

Collection of Titus Riedl, Brazil

ROSEGALLERY, Santa Monica, 2012

Photographers Looking at Photographs: 75 Pictures from the Pilara Foundation (San Francisco: Pier 24 Photography, 2019), p. 5, 34, and 42 (these prints)

While living in Northeastern Brazil, writer Titus Riedl amassed a huge collection of hand-painted photographs dating from the late 19th century to the 1990s. While the tradition of hand-painted photographs was not unique to the region, the process was certainly a localized phenomenon. Street traders (bonequeiros) [this translates to English as doll makers] photographed clients in remote rural villages, then traveled to larger towns where a studio technician would enlarge the photographs. Artisans smoothed wrinkles, masked scars, added distinctive color to clothing, placed expensive jewelry on ears and necks, and created voluminous hairstyles for each sitter. Several weeks later, the bonequeiros returned to the villages, distributing portraits that incorporated elements of fantasy, desire, and even undertones of veneration, not unlike the idealized depiction of a saint. Commissioned for family members both living and dead, these painted photo-hybrids embody both class consciousness and remembrance.