The architectural photography of Peter Scheier in three publications

Abstract

Based on three relevant books with historiographic perspectives about modern Brazilian architectural production from the 1930s to the mid-1950s: Brazil Builds by Philip Goodwin and G.E. Kidder Smith, Latin American architecture since 1945 by Henry-Russell Hitchcock, and Modern architecture in Brazil by Henrique Mindlin - this article examines the work of photographer Peter Scheier, a German immigrant who worked in São Paulo from the 1930s to the 1970s. This analysis is supported by secondary, or second-generation, sources: printed reproductions. However, the examination of these sources still considers the posture, or the"creative mediation of the photographer": photography will always support the particular vision of the person who produced it, in any registered subject. The photographer is a cultural filter whose knowledge, sensibility, creativity, state of mind, and ideology shine through his or her images. This article did not consider typical questions related to primary sources - the original photography - such as physical support, development, and conservation. This article is divided into three parts. In the first, the role of photography in these three books is discussed in order to draw a broad view of this production, based on the published credits. The second part brings a short biography of Peter Scheier, supplying essential information for the analysis of the images, which comprises the third part of the article.