LANDSKRONA FOTO VIEW: CHILE
MARCELO MONTECINO: CARTAGENA, 1990. [p.28-29]
A (TENTATIVE) TALE OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN CHILE
on his knowledge of the camera to José Dolores Fuenzalida, a 34-year-old citizen of Santiago, who became Chile’s first daguerreotypist. Between 1843 and 1850, close to 25 daguerreotypists travelled to Chile and traversed it from north to south. This high number was due, in some measure, to the profound change that was taking place in the mentality and physiology of a republic in the throes of an emergency. Photography was a new technology very coveted by the Utopian proponents of the day. In the period from 1850 to 1860, the number of daguerreotypists doubled. It was during this time that the debate over the two technological variants of the new invention began: the daguerreotype and the paper photograph. Sometimes a daguerreotypist was also a photographer; but in other instances, there were veritable duels between the followers of one method or the other. Regardless of this, established photographers multiplied in number, both in Valparaiso and Santiago. This generated an active market that increased competition for the best prices and technical solutions. But perhaps the most significant development of the time is what we could call “photographic education,” in that photographers began to communicate publicly how they practiced their profession. One of the most important authors of the time was William Helsby. Between 1846 and 1859, he became widely known for his photographic studio which had branches in Valparaiso and Santiago. He was a faithful fan of the daguerreotype, which he applied to a variety of formats and themes. He documented landscapes, fires and night scenes, made miniatures for rings and brooches and larger-thanlife portraits. He also made lithographic images to be published in newspapers and framed in salons. He created a brand associated with his name that became inseparable from a traditional building in the city of Valparaiso. In contrast to Helsby, German-born Adolfo Alexander arrived in 1851 and offered to take portraits with a new invention: the daguerreotype on paper. Another notable figure was Frenchman Víctor Deroche, who arrived in 1852 and worked as a painter, a daguerreotypist on metal and glass and a photographer on paper. He was the first to propose an album of views, an idea several other photographers would streamline a few years later.
SAMUEL SALGADO TELLO DIRECTOR OF CENFOTO-UNIVERSIDAD DIEGO PORTALES
The first reference to photography reaching Chile coincides with the arrival of the Belgian frigate L’Oriental in the Port of Valparaiso in June 1840. It was a training and commercial ship whose crew consisted mainly of French and Belgian professors and young men and women. Among them was Abbot Louis Comte, connoisseur and operator of a daguerreotype camera, who had had the opportunity to attend presentations given by Daguerre and Niépce about the invention in France. The most prominent Chilean newspaper described Comte as the person “in charge of a Daguerreotype, which produces the most striking views of the cities and places they visit.” There is no record of the results of the first daguerreotypes made in the country as L’Oriental, upon leaving the Port of Valparaiso on June 23, sank off its shores. The second known attempt is also not exempt from curiosities, mishaps and errors. This time the initiative came from a Chilean diplomat, Francisco Javier Rosales. Undoubtedly an admirer of the technical ability of photography to create exact representations of reality, he bought a “camera lucida” from Daguerre himself. His hope was that the professors at the Instituto Nacional de Santiago, the most important educational institution in the country, would familiarise themselves with the invention. The daguerreotype camera crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Port of Valparaiso in the summer of 1841, where it arrived without incident. But at the port, or on its way to Santiago, it was damaged and neither the professors at the Instituto Nacional nor the scientists at the Universidad de Chile were able to repair it. Thus, another opportunity to introduce photography to Chile was lost. Another two years went by before, in 1843, the daguerreotype finally made its debut in Chile. This came about when French traveller Philogone Daviette spent two months taking portraits of people living in Valparaiso until he returned to Peru, from where he had come. But his images have never been found. Then another Frenchman, Hulliel, arrived in the summer of 1844. His biggest contribution – although his photos have also never been identified – was to pass
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