The Body as Measure: Scale, Power, and Human Presence in Marc Ferrez’s Obras do novo abastecimento de água do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Between 1876 and 1882, Brazilian photographer Marc Ferrez produced a series of photographs documenting the construction and completion of dams, reservoirs, and various engineering projects for Rio de Janeiro’s new water supply systems. While the titled subject of each image is infrastructure, an unacknowledged presence marks many of the compositions: the human body. People constellate the series, captured by accident or intentionally posed by Ferrez as tools by which size can be made sense of, setting monumental constructions to scale. The use of the body as an informal scale legend signals unintended tensions in Ferrez’s photographs. In concert with the imperial constructions, Brazil’s government completed a tumultuous process of implementing new metric guidelines that redefined the country’s measurement system, enabled large-scale civil infrastructure projects, and sparked popular protest. More than a marker, the human body—a fundamentally inexact tool of measurement—renders a distinct ambiguity to the modernity and scientific rationality Ferrez’s images champion, returning to embodied modes of knowledge.