Apollonia Project

 The Photography Center of the College of Librarianship and Communication (FABICO) from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) is developing since 1993 the Project “UFRGS DOCUMENTS”. This project has as its main objective the photographic documentation of environments differentiated by their ecological, historical-cultural, and/or scientific importance.

The establishment of these photographic expeditions, became official with the project UFRGS DOCUMENTS O PANTANAL / MS, (UFRGS documents the swampland) in 1993, which began the series, based on academic extension activities and research, documentation and storage of visual information of environments that stand out for their personal characteristics, being them ecological, socio-cultural or historical. During May 1999, the ancient history teacher Francisco Marshall, from the Institute of Philosophy and Humanities (IFCH-UFRGS), invited the coordinator of the Photography Center Mario Bitt-Monteiro, to take part as the photographic coordinator of the Scientific Apollonia Project, in Herzlyia, Israel. This Project involved, under agreement, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS (Brazil) and the Tel Aviv University -TAU (Israel), and also the partnership of the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology of the University of São Paulo (MAE-USP). The Photography Center, accepting the invitation, arranged a meeting with the Apollonia Project coordinators, the teachers Francisco Marshall (UFRGS) and Israel Roll (TAU), deciding then to send a team of photographers, two students and a photography teacher from the Social Communication course from UFRGS, along with the archeologists' group, students and teachers from IFCH, UFRGS.

The Photography Center’s team was formed by the students Daniel Quevedo and Cristina Lima, and the photography teacher Suziene David, from FABICO/UFRGS under the coordination and orientation, through Internet and telephone, of the photography consultant of UFRGS, Mario Bitt-Monteiro in Porto Alegre. This team joined to the group made up of the teachers Edison B. Cruxen (PUCRS), Wagner C. Porto (MAE-USP), Raquel M. Rech (MAE-USP) and the student-grant holder Alessandra Trigo (MAE-USP), coordinated by the teacher Francisco Marshall of the Nucleus of Ancient History, of the Department of History - IFCH/UFRGS. This was the group that went on the expedition to the Apollonia archeological site, from August to September in 1999, joining to the group in Israel, coordinated by the teacher Israel Roll of the Tel Aviv University.

One of the photographers' of the Nucleus intentions was to apply an experimental photographic registration method denominated “The Surrounding Universes System” (Bitt-Monteiro,1999), that consists of separating or to classifying in differentiated universes the environment or space in which the photographer is inserted, in way that conjugates their visual perception stages in these universes, with different techniques of photographic takings, searching for a better technical-artistic posture in the photography of the subject or focused element. During the period of the expedition analogical photographic cameras were used, as well as digital cameras to document the subjects. The cameras used were: Nikon N90s, Nikon F-300, FM 2 and Sony Mavica FD7, and the films Tri-X Pan (Kodak), Neopan 100, NPH 400 and Velvia (Fuji), and Pro-Image (Kodak).

Around 4000 photographic images were obtained, from the  Apollonia site, and from visits to the archeological sites of Maresha, Mamshit, Beit Guvrin, Ashdod Avdat, Belvoir and Akko, besides the elaboration of authorial photographic shootings. In this article by the Communication course - UFRGS, we are presenting a miscellany of the work accomplished in Israel, being made up of a "pinch" from the material acquired during the expedition UFRGS DOCUMENTS ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES OF ISRAEL – 1st. Scientific Photographic Mission of UFRGS, done by the photographers Daniel Quevedo, Cristina Lima and Suziene David.