"Just press the button...": photographic amateur practice in Belo Horizonte

ABSTRACT The influence of the technological and commercial improvement of photography - as well as its advertising on the beginning and development of the amateur practice is the starting point of this article. Focusing on the reality of Belo Horizonte, it was possible to identify how the photographic practice was offered and diffused in the period from the 1940s to the 1960s, through some of its most recurrent expressions. The text still contains a reflection on the scope and limits of the photographic technique, focused on the development of automatisms. This discussion is based on the analysis of photographic advertisements (equipment and photographic materials) found in journals of great circulation in the capital of Minas Gerais. These advertisings, announced by shops owners in the city, or by photographic companies through their representatives, present the products offered, their technical resources, values, and possibilities of use. In this same context, we will also approach the creation of the Foto Clube de Minas Gerais, the first amateur photographer’s association of the capital of Minas Gerais.