Campinas will gain an unprecedented and permanent exhibition room at the MIS (Museum of Image and Sound) dedicated to Hercule Florenceresponsible for the isolated discovery of photography, 190 years ago.
The project is in partnership with the Hercule Florence Institute, responsible for safeguarding the artist’s works, records and writings, and will feature educational actions and accessibility resources. The opening will be on May 18, International Museum Day.
Visitors will be able to learn about the chronology of Hercule Florence’s life and experiences related to the invention of photography through three-dimensional prototypes reconstructed from the original manuscripts and accompanied by videos, totems, panels and explanatory QR Codes.
Facade of MIS Campinas, which will house an exhibition room about Hercule Florence @ Ricardo Lima
The project includes guided tours for students in public and private education, a website with the content of the exhibition, educational material available in PDF format for free download (in addition to physical copies that can also be distributed free of charge), workshops to reconstruct the Hercule method Florence, in addition to workshops in schools to encourage visits to the exhibition and spread knowledge around photography and Florence’s inventions.
“Our goal is to give visibility to Hercule Florence and its various discoveries. He, for example, was the first to use the term ‘photography’. The room was created with the aim of making it known and accessible, not just for photography lovers. With these actions, we intend to fill a gap in information for the general population about the life and work of this important inventor, who chose Campinas to live”, details Ana Angélica Costa, responsible for artistic coordination and research, together with Débora Bruno .
Sober Hercules Florence
Antoine Hercule Romuald Florence (Nice, France 1804 – Campinas, SP, 1879) was a draftsman, painter, photographer, typographer, lithographer, teacher and inventor. He arrived in Brazil in 1824.
He worked in commerce and in a typographic company, before joining the Langsdorff Expedition as a draftsman, between 1825 and 1829. He lived in Vila de São Carlos (currently Campinas), where he invented a photographic process in 1833.
In search of simplifying common image reproduction procedures at the time (restricted to different types of engraving), he invented, in 1830, what he called polygraphie [poligrafia]a color printing method similar to the current mimeograph.
From 1832 onwards, he began to investigate the possibilities of fixing the image using the camera obscura using an element that changes color due to the action of light.
With the help of apothecary Joaquim Correa de Mello, he carried out photochemical experiments that gave rise to images called photographie [fotografia]em 1833.
Note: MIS Campinas (Rua Regente Feijó, 859 – Centro)