The collection of photographer Benicio Dias (1914-1976), donated to the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation the same year of his death, gathers 1,432 images - dated from 1870 to 1950 and some are by other photographers. For this edition, 158 photographs were selected from the collection of the artist, considered a master by Gilberto Freyre. His interest in Recife, the urban changes and the people of the city are not by chance: he worked for the Departamento de Documentação e Cultura da Prefeitura do Recife (Department of documentation and culture of City Hall of Recife) graphically documenting the capital. The book comprises texts by the researchers of the Dias' work and by the photographer's son, architect Sérgio Benicio Whatley Dias, who writes an essay about his father's photographic production.