Documentary analysis of photographic images of pilgrimages in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

A discussion, through a literature review, on the use of photographic documents and Documentary Analysis (DA) for the preservation, description and retrieval of images of pilgrimages in northeastern Brazil, which are archived at the Laboratory of Information Science and Memory (LACIM). The photograph acts as an expression of faith and devotion; it is a witnesses and documents, through images, the records of the day-to-day folk religion in its multiple meanings and situations, linked to the sacred. The DA —as a set of procedures performed after the reading of documents— facilitates the analysed collection location or query through the documentary language. This paper tries to show that the particular form of the information contained in a photographic archive echoes submerged memories of the pilgrims, authenticating a social fact in the country, capturing the sacredness from specific moments of celebration.