The photographic portfolio in inter-club exchange

232 The photographic portfolio in inter-club

exchange

A note published in the Boletim Foto-Cine Clube Bandeirante nbr 38, of August 1949, spoke of the portfolio exchange between photo clubs as “a new mode of photographic exchange” to which the association from São Paulo had adhered at the time.1

A photo club would send ten photographs by ten authors, all duly documented, to another similar entity in the country or abroad. These photographs would circulate among ten members of the receiving institution, who would then write their comments regarding each picture in a book mainly dedicated to this. After spreading the images, the portfolio and commentated book would be sent back to the club that had issued it. It would also receive a portfolio from the other institution members and proceed in the same manner.

As can be seen, the exchange of portfolios was not a contest, and, thus, the photographs that were part of it were not submitted to a jury. They were also not shown at exhibitions. The objective of this exchange was to stimulate a critical exercise between photographers.

The portfolio included in this catalog, an exchange between the FCCB and amateurs from the USA linked through the Photographic Society of America, is a welldocumented example of this practice of international circulation of photography.