São Paulo – The group of “cangaceiros” headed by Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, aka Lampião, in the 1920s and 1930s, did not fight for peace and justice. It was a group of well-armed robbers, murderers and outlaws who, thanks to the almost total lack of public power among local governments, joined forces to settle the scores with enemies, steal, kill and pillage cities. That is how book "Iconografia do cangaço" (Iconography of the Cangaço), to be released in São Paulo, in May, tells, in images, the story of Lampião.
The work brings together pictures by the only official photographer of Lampião’s group: the Lebanese Benjamin Abrahão. He accompanied the cangaceiros around the drylands of the Northeast and pictured their habits, where they slept, prayed, how they fed and even how they enjoyed themselves.
The organizer of "Iconografia do Cangaço", Ricardo Albuquerque, says that the idea of photographing the cangaceiros arose after a conversation between Abrahão and his grandfather, Adhemar Albuquerque, who worked as a cashier of London Bank, in Fortaleza, and was a great fan of photography and cinema.
When they decided that the Lebanese travelling salesman was going to enter the group of bandits, he was working as a secretary to a famous priest in Juazeiro do Norte. He met Lampião when the cangaceiro and his band were called by a local politician to help protect the city against a group of rebels, politicians and military men, who were trying to stop the inauguration of president Artur Bernardes. Padre Cícero was a friend of Lampião’s as the cleric took care of the cangaceiro’s sisters. It was thanks to these relations between the priest and Lampião that the immigrant was authorised to accompany his group.
Adhemar sponsored Abrahão’s adventure in 1936. His idea was that the Lebanese should take pictures and film the band, so that Adhemar’s production company, ABA Film, could produce a film about the cangaço. It did not work out: Abrahão returned from the trip with images that could not be used and even with films that had been destroyed by ants. That year, Adhemar taught Abrahão how to use a camera, explained the care that should be taken with the film and also taught him how to use sunlight in his benefit at the moment of picturing.
Still in 1936, Abrahão went on another adventure with the cangaceiros. He returned with the material in late 1936, but, in the following year, he was murdered in Recife and never saw the result of his work. Neither did Lampião, who died in 1938.
"My grandfather’s idea was for the movie to be shown at Cine Moderno [in Fortaleza]. The first exhibition would take place in 1938, but the censorship department of the Getúlio Vargas government did not let him show it before the censors had seen it. He promoted a closed movie session for the government, which banned the movie and apprehended the original copies,” said Ricardo. Adhemar, however, had another original copy, but decided not to show it during the Vargas government.
The material would only be shown again after Vargas’ death, in 1954, by a German distributor in Rio de Janeiro. Adhemar loaned the copy to Alexandre Wulff, who showed the film for the first time in 1955. While the film was stored away with Ademar, some pictures, disclosed by Abrahão, made the press. The images belong to Chico Albuquerque Cultural Institute, which started working on the project in 2003.
In the work, apart from the pictures by the Lebanese travelling salesman, there are images of Lampião made in what Ricardo calls the "pre-Abrahão" period. In the 1920s, two other photographers, known as Maia and Lauro Cabral, made other images of the cangaceiro. They were often called by the land owners of the region who also hired Lampião’s group to protect them from other groups of foreigners or to attack other landowners.
The pictures by Abrahão, Maia and Lauro Cabral are in "Iconografia do cangaço", as is the letter in which Lampião authorises use of the pictures. The book also has images of the “volantes”, the forces set up by the local governments to fight against the cangaceiros. The film that Getúlio Vargas confiscated is also included in the book, in the form of a DVD. To the original 11 minutes, another four minutes were added, recovered by Cinemateca Brasileira ten years ago. Ricardo worked on a new montage of the movie with the images by Abrahão.
"There was no idealism in the story of Lampião and his companions or opponents. To them, being in that condition was a matter of survival, as they wanted vengeance, they wanted justice,” said Ricardo, who believes that at his moments of greatest strength, Lampião had up to 250 men and even established "subgroups" in cities like Juazeiro do Norte, in Ceará, and Mossoró, in Rio Grande do Norte.
"The pictures do not have a specific style or quality. Many are out of focus or are badly cut. I am making the material available to help historians in their research and for those interested in learning more about the cangaço,” said Ricardo.
Service
Iconografia do Cangaço
Editora Terceiro Nome
Org. Ricardo Albuquerque
216 pp.
R$ 120
Release scheduled for May 08th, 2012.
*Translated by Mark Ament
