Saturday, September 21, 2024

Joao Henriques de Mello photograph of my grandmother's friends (in Sao Nicolau)

 



Joao Henriques de Mello took this photo of my grandmother's friends (possibly members of her adopted family).  He was a quite famous photographer, born in Santiago (11/8/1871), his mother was from CV and his father was from Portugal, he was the brother of Jose H. de Mello who (1907-8) was the first Portuguese war photographer.  Joao was the subject of a recent documentary.  Since I may have some facts mixed up please corroborate.  I am remembering this from a conversation with his cousin who lives in Portugal.  Joao was an itinerant photographer.  I spoke to the documentary maker who lives in Brazil to see if there was any sort of index of the photos that Mr. de Mello had taken b/c I would love to know who these women are.  My gram had only one such photo which she cherished and she must have brought it with her belongings on her trip from Sao Nicolau to New Bedford.  The women all look so different.  But my gram looks like the woman who is seated.  No names are written on the back. Joao Henriques de Mello died in 1944 in Mindelo.  (Research these names:  Victor Jose de Mello/ Anna da Silva Noqueira (2/18/1895/ Maria Jose Medina Henriques).  I jotted the names down but I am  not sure why. Also, for some reason I did not write down the name of the film or the name of the documentary maker.  

 

On 9/21/2024 I found a (copywrighted) photo of him on Barrosbrito.   Most likely the copyright is not still valid b/c it is probably more than 72 years.  However, I did not want to copy it here.  Please just type in "Joao Henriques de Mello" in any search engine and there should be a photo of him and also his brother, Jose.  

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