Joaquim Possidónio Narciso da Silva
Joaquim Possidónio Narciso da Silva (1806–1896) was one of the main 19th century Portuguese photographers, architect and archaeologist.
Particularly during the 1860s, he produced beautiful salt paper prints of Portuguese monuments, however he is best known as an architect and archeologist. His pho- tography was, as a matter of fact instrumental to his research in architecture and archeology. Very young he went with the Portuguese Royal Family escaping from the Napoleonic invasions to Brazil. Latter, between 1821 and 1834, he studied and worked in France and Italy. He was a founding member of the Real Associação dos Arquitectos Civis e Arqueólogos Portugueses in 1863 and latter of the Museu Nacional de Arquelogia. Before that, in 1862–63 he published the illustrated magazine Revista Pitoresca e Descritiva, which, in several issues, presented 26 photographs as salted paper prints of some of the most important Portuguese monuments. As a photographer, as well as an architect and archeologist he promoted nationalism by means of knowledge of monuments and history. In 1875 he was a member of the commission charged of the reform of fine arts where he proposed the inclusion of photography in museums [1].
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