Gomes Casseres Y Su Banana Series (1907–1920): Imaginación Fotográfica en Postales de Costa Rica [Gomes Casseres and his Banana Series (1907–1920): The Photographic Imaginary of Costa Rica Postcards]

For those who read Spanish, Gomes Casseres y su Banana Series (1907–1920) is the perfect book to put on the reading lists of beginning PhD students, but senior researchers will benefit no less from it. It is an inspiring and perfectly didactic work on how to investigate an object that, at first sight, resists “real” research, while gradually appearing as a fascinating topic first written in invisible ink, then making itself known as a crucial document and testimony. At the beginning, the corpus in question is no more than this: a single image belonging to a larger set of 12 postcards documenting, but probably also advertising, the banana trade. The images were created by an unknown amateur photographer (Gomes Casseres) working on behalf of a company that has long since changed its name (from the United Fruit Company to Chiquita Brands International) and centered on a currently somewhat neglected place...