Envisioning a "Whitened" Brazil: Photography and Slavery at the World's Fairs, 1862-1889

AbstractBetween 1862 and 1889, the Brazilian elite perceived international exhibitionsas an opportunity to promote and project an idealized image of the“modern nation”. By displaying commodities and agricultural products, as wellas some manufactured artifacts, Brazil sought to attract foreign investmentand immigrants. However, in contrast to its Spanish American competitorsat the world’s fairs, many of Brazil’s exhibits derived from slave labor. Todownplay this unpleasant reality before a critical international audience, theexhibition organizers used the “objective” medium of photography to depicttheir country as overwhelmingly European, focusing on the gradual processof “whitening” through immigration