GEOMETRIES OF A MODERN DREAM DISMANTLED FROM THE AIR?: AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AS A PROJECT IMAGE IN AIRCRAFT AND BRASILIA

Abstract

Aerial photography, which emerged in the 19th century, remains fully relevant today. From its beginnings—with the attachment of photographic equipment to balloons, kites, carrier pigeons, and later, airplanes, satellites, and drones—it gave rise to the first urban postcards, initial strategies for territorial mapping for military purposes, city planning, environmental exploration, and, more recently, the entertainment provided by the circulation of aerial images on cell phone and computer screens. The multiple purposes of aerial photography highlight a conceptual and theoretical turning point in photography: its ability to attest to the past and, simultaneously, to project the future. As photography becomes integrated into projects in the personal and collective spheres, photographic culture produces narratives programmed to meet different objectives. The aim of this article is to understand aerial photography, on the one hand, as an instrument for verifying the reality of something that existed and, on the other hand, as an act of design—a fundamental piece in the programming of possible realities and in shaping the future. This approach is exemplified by the works Aircraft, by Le Corbusier (1935), the Technical Report on the New Capital of the Republic (Brasília), prepared by the American company Donald and Belcher (published in 1957), and the Pilot Plan of Brasília, by Lúcio Costa (1956). Finally, the article reflects on photography as a dream image and as a mechanism of domination of collectivities, as intuited by Walter Benjamin, whose symbolic and political efficacy is still present in contemporary times.