Over the light of darkness: memory and present meanings in anonymous visual heaps

Abstract

This research presents some reflections about the actions developed by the project “Revelações da História” (History Revelation), an initiative constituted by photograph researchers in the city of Londrina (Paraná State, Brazil), between the years of 2005 and 2008, that resulted in the identification, formation, re-integration and diffusion of anonymous visual heaps, as well as the publishing of two books that inserted in Londrina´s community inedited visual collections: the Foto Estrela´s and the Armínio Kaiser´s heaps. Some reflections about fragments of these photographic collections were made in order to enlarge and to consolidate the importance of this preservation
initiative starting from some contents not explored by the project “Revelações da História”. The theoretical discussions were made under the light of concepts
from Vilém Flüsser philosophy, the linguistic theory of Mikhail Bakhtin and the French line of semiotics theory. The research also ratifies the importance of these heaps to the constitution of a visual memory about “sceneries and characters in Brazil” and about the building of social history as the researcher Boris Kossoy proposes. Moreover, the main lines of action from the project “Revelações da História” also were presented in relation to the theoretical bases, methods and instruments that have guided it, intending to be a reference to future projects of the same type. The results presented at this research ratify the importance and the value of the lightening up and democratization
of anonymous pho tographic heaps to the universe of the knowledge.