Augusto Malta lived between 1864 and 1957, and built a sublime photographic repertoire, detailing Rio through its 'Belle Époque'.

The driving force behind the portal is the celebration of Malta's great works, and the desire to make them available to the public in a digital format -  The collection has been expanded to include works by the artist's son, Giton Malta, and later also Uriel Malta. It was finally further broadened to include a spread of refined photographic documentation of changes to the city of Rio de Janeiro between 1903 and 1950s.

Creators of the portal seek to expand access to iconographic records documenting the history of the city of Rio, hoping to do justice to the work of one of Rio's most important photographers as well as his successors in life and in art.