Voltaire Fraga: “como se fosse um amador”

Abstract

This dissertation is dedicated to the work of the Bahian photographer Voltaire Fraga, active in Salvador between 1930 and 1977. The study focuses on the 1940s –– particularly during the remarkable and controversial years of the Estado Novo –– when, working within the state apparatus, he began his professional career and produced some of the most substantial parts of his oeuvre. A pioneer of modernist language in photography and attentive to the city’s landscapes and rhythms, Fraga composed a vast visual inventory of the objects, culture, customs, characters, and landscapes that shaped urban life in Bahia’s capital during that period. His series include a detailed documentation of the reforms promoted by the administration of Durval Neves da Rocha (1938–1942), the second major wave of local modernization. By gathering and interpreting his work, this research shows how Fraga’s photography contributed to preserving the memory of a period that reshaped the Salvador we know today.