Jean Gottmann’s Iconographic Circuit in Rio de Janeiro (1973)

Abstract

In Geography images can be powerful instruments for the development of reasoning, despite the more current usage that condemns them to the role of illustrations.
The aim of this article is to approach images as primary analytical elements and explore their heuristic potential. The case under study involves the photos left by the geographer Jean Gottmann during his stay in Rio de Janeiro in 1973. The choice of this case is due both to the compositional elements present in the pictures and to the procedures used in their production. Three main types of movement were identified in the making of these
photos: Gottmann’s circuit around the city, the camera’s displacements in the same point of view and the images made in motion. The study let to know that Jean Gottmann used images as research tools. The pictures are witnesses of the urbanization and urban sprawl of Rio de Janeiro.