The First “Scientific Photographs” of a Sperm Whale (1890) : Francisco Afonso Chaves and the Wonderful Inaccuracy of Image

Abstract

In 1890, in Paris, a text entitled « Des formes extérieures du Cachalot » was published, signed by G. Pouchet and F.-A. Chaves and illustrated with three drawings and three photographs. These are advertised as “the first scientific photographs of the whale.” Through them it is finally possible to “fix the exterior features of this animal, as famous as poorly known” and therefore, as stated in the opening, ending a long era of inaccurate representations. The authors of the article are two reputed naturalists : Charles Henri Georges Pouchet (1833-1894), and the Azorean Francisco Afonso Chaves (1857-1926). Afonso Chaves is also a remarkable photographer whose work, mostly stereoscopic, remained unknown until recently. The aim of this paper is to analyse the photographs of Francisco Afonso Chaves and realize why they play a central role in the publication of 1890. As emphatically stressed by Georges Pouchet, they constitute the first scientific representations of a species hitherto poorly understood and poorly visually represented. But ultimately, what makes these photographs scientific ? And how does the visual and the visible mingle in these images ?

Keywords

• Francisco Afonso Chaves
• photography
• scientific representation
• visible
• visual