On Thursday, 8 November 2007, Iziko Museums of Cape Town will host the opening of a remarkable exhibition of images of African slaves in Brazil at the Iziko Slave Lodge.

The exhibition was conceived by Dr Stefan Oschmann, head of the Africa Music Festival in Würzburg. It consists of images of Brazilian slaves of African origin with a contextualising history. The images are reproduced from the cartes de visite of Alberto Henschel and from photographs by Marc Ferrez. The original photographs are in the collections of the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde in Leipzig and the Instituto Moreira Salles Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, respectively.

In 1839, Louis Daguerre patented the daguerreotype in Europe, the earliest type of practicable photograph – one year after the emancipation of slaves at the Cape. Since legal slavery disappeared in many countries before outdoor photography took off, the only country to have a substantial archive of photographs depicting slaves is Brazil, where the abolition of slavery was only decreed in 1888.

The photographs of Alberto Henschel present a convergent space for discussion around issues of ethnography, representation and the circulation of images constructed to meet the demand for access to foreign locations and ‘exotic’ people. Marc Ferrez is one of the best-known photographers of the 19th century and Brazil’s foremost landscape photographer. Ferrez documented many aspects of Brazil, working closely with the imperial house.

The exhibition is supported by the German Consulate-General in Cape Town and runs until 31 March 2008.

Venue: Iziko Slave Lodge
c/o Adderley and Wale Streets, Cape Town
Tel: 021 460 8242

Open: Monday – Saturday: 10h00 to 17h00
Closed: Sundays, Good Friday & Christmas Day
Entrance fee: Adults R10, children R5, pensioners and SA students R5 on production of SA pensioner and SA student cards. Free entrance on Saturdays.

For further information please contact:
Fiona Clayton: Tel 021 464 1268 or email: fclayton@iziko.org.za

Curator, Social History Collections Department.

Image:

Anonymous: Lady of the family Costa Carvalbo in sedan with two slaves, Bahia, 1860 – Instituto Moreira Salles, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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