Summary

The text analyzes how photography was used by different actors involved in economic, social and political modernization at the end of the nineteenth century in Chile. As well as serving as a type of visual record, photography was a medium through which the possibilities for the exploitation of national territory and Chilean workers ability to adapt to the requirements of a capitalist economy were made known. Also taking into account that some of the workers at the beginning of the century used photography both personally and collectively. This paper analyzes their experience of serving as both the subjects of the photographs and as the photographers themselves.