The ABC of Old Masters of Capoeira

M Waldemar in the Port Quays and Itapuã Beach
Marcel Gautherot photos, 1954

December, 2016

Information about the photos

Marcel Gautherot's capoeira collection of 1954 consists of at least 288 photos of high quality*. We can divide these in 3 parts.

I
The photos with the codes 010BACE01564 to 010BACE01678 (a total of 115 photos) were made in the Port Quays, Salvador.

There are two adjacent places used. We can see the sailboats in the port of Salvador. On some photos it is possible to identify the Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Lapinha and on others the Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte Serrat at the back (Igreja 1 and 2, see the map below).

Visual identification 1

Visual identification 2

II
The photos with the codes 010BACE01679 to 010BACE01808 (a total of 130 photos) were made on Itapuã Beach, Salvador.

There are two adjacent places used. On some of photos it is possible to identify the Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Itapuã at the back (Igreja 3, see the map below).

III
The photos with the codes 010BACE14248 to 010BACE14290 (a total of 43 photos) were made once again in the Port Quays, Salvador.

There are three adjacent places used. On some of the photos it is possible to identify the ship called Atalaia (II, read more below) and a chucrhc on the Av. Jequitaia (Igreja 4, see the map below).

* The Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS) until now only published 33 photos of lesser quality, that you can see below.

Among the participants we indentify M Waldemar, Gildásio Mangangá, probably the young M Curió (Jaime Martins dos Santos, 17 years old) and Marcel Gautherot himself, who let someone take photos of him together with the capoeiristas.

The dating of the photos by the IMS is a little problematic. Thers is no other information besides the codes starting with 010BACE. The dating by the IMS is varing from 1941 to 1957. Based on the following observations Velhosmestres.com is proposing that all the photos were made in 1954:

1. Photos in the Sul America magazine of December 1954 indicate that the photos of M Waldemar were made before the end of the year 1954, perhaps in November or December.
2. The ship called Atalaia (I) disappeared on the 21st May 1941. But Atalaia (II) of the photo 010BACE14252 was constructed in 1945 (!) and scrapped in 1969.
3. Edison Carneiro started to use Gautherot's photos in magazine Módulo in March 1956.
4. M Waldemar (b. 1916) on the photo 010BACE14283 doesn't look like 25 years old nor does Gautherot (b. 1910) 31 (if it were year 1941), but better 38 and 44 (in 1954). We can compare with the photo 010BARI17237 (Gautherot, Ribeira, 1955).
5. In Dreyfus-Roche's recording of the year 1955 on a Salvador beach the participants looks almost all the same and the same age as on Gautherot's photos of the beach.
6. We can see the same berimbau called FLOR DO CAMPO on the photos 010BACE14288 (close to Atalaia) and 010BARI17235 in Ribeira, 1955.
7. According to Shaffer (1977) M Waldemar only in 1942 (!) started to make berimbaus to sell and invented a special paint-job for these.

BACE in the codes can mean Bahia, Centre. There are other photos with BARI, probably Bahia, Ribeira. However the beach photos are not from the centre, but look more to be from Itapuã.

A fun fact from Lydia Segala, 2012:

«In the interview that [Marcel Gautherot] gave me, cited above, he comments that «the only thing the the groups [including the one of M Waldemar?] asked me was cachaça. They never asked for money to let themselves be photographed. It was always between friends. Many times, like in Maranhão, I went to have drink, to party with them.»»

The locations' map

M Waldemar, 1954

Photo gallery

M Waldemar, ? and Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01567
Visual identification:
The Church of Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Lapinha
M Waldemar, ? and ?
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01567
Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01573
Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01577
Standing:
M Waldemar (berimbau),
?,
M Curió? (berimbau, Jaime Martins dos Santos, 17 years old)
Gildásio Mangangá (pandeiro)
?
Playing: ? and Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01582
Standing:
M Waldemar (berimbau),
?,
Ivanildo(?) (berimbau),
M Curió? (pandeiro, Jaime Martins dos Santos, 17 years old)
?
Playing: ? and Gildásio Mangangá
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01587
Standing:
M Waldemar (berimbau),
?,
Ivanildo(?) (berimbau),
M Curió? (pandeiro, Jaime Martins dos Santos, 17 years old)
?
Playing: ? and Gildásio Mangangá
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01590
Standing: ?
Playing: Ivanildo(?) and ?
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01608
Standing: Gildásio Mangangá (pandeiro)
Playing: Ivanildo(?) and ?
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01613
Standing:
Gildásio Mangangá (pandeiro)
?,
Ivanildo(?) (berimbau)
Playing: ? and M Waldemar
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01639
Playing: ? and ?
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01651
Visual identification:
The Church of Nossa Senhora do Monte Serrat
Playing: M Traíra and Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01651
Playing: M Traíra e Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01652
Playing: M Traíra e Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01654
Playing: M Traíra e Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01665
Playing: ? e M Traíra
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01671
Playing: ? e M Traíra
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01672
Playing: ? and Ivanildo(?)
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01683
Playing: ? and Ivanildo(?)
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01689
Playing: ? and Ivanildo(?)
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01692
Playing: M Traíra e Ivanildo(?
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01693
Playing: M Traíra e Ivanildo(?
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01699
Playing: M Traíra e Ivanildo(?
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01701
Playing: ? and Ivanildo(?)
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01738
Playing: ? and Ivanildo(?)
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01743
Playing: ? and Ivanildo(?)
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01751
Standing:
?,
M Waldemar,
Gildásio Mangangá? (pandeiro),
?,
Ivanildo(?) (berimbau),
?
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01752
Standing:
?,
Ivanildo(?) (berimbau),
Pai de Família(?) (Flaviano Xavier),
Gildásio Mangangá? (pandeiro)
Playing: M Waldemar and ?
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01771
Standing:
M Waldemar,
Ivanildo(?) (berimbau),
?,
?,
Gildásio Mangangá? (pandeiro)
Playing: ? and ?
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01788
Standing:
?,
M Waldemar,
?,
?,
Gildásio Mangangá? (pandeiro),
?
Playing: ? and ?
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01795
?
Itapuã Beach, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE01808
Sqautting: M Waldemar
Playing: ? and Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE14252
Standing:
?,
?,
?,
Marcel Gautherot (berimbau)
Sqautting: M Waldemar
Playing: ? and Ivanildo(?)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE14255
Standing:
?,
?,
Marcel Gautherot (berimbau)
Ivanildo(?) (ao fundo, à direita)
Playing: ? and ?
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE14256
Playing: Ivanildo(?) e Pai de Família(?) (Flaviano Xavier)
Port Quays, Salvador (see the map above)
Marcel Gautherot, 1954
IMS collection, 010BACE14266