Opis
Human (and) nature. Epic journeys to the ends of the earth: Salgado’sopus on our planet in its natural state. On a very fortuitous day in1970, 26-year-old Sebastiao Salgado held a camera for the first time.When he looked through the viewfinder, he had an epiphany: suddenly lifemade sense. From that day onward – though it took years of hard workbefore he had the experience to earn his living as a photographer – thecamera became his tool for interacting with the world.
Salgado, who”always preferred the chiaroscuro palette of black-and-white images,”shot very little color in his early career before giving it upcompletely. Having been raised on a rural farm in Brazil, far fromcivilization and without television, Salgado possessed a deep love andrespect for nature; he was also particularly sensitive to the ways inwhich human beings are affected by their often devastatingsocio-economic conditions.
Of the myriad works Salgado has produced inhis esteemed career, three long-term projects stand out: „Workers”(1993), documenting the vanishing way of life of manual laborers acrossthe world, „Migrations” (2000), a tribute to mass migration driven byhunger, natural disasters, environmental degradation and demographicpressure, and this new opus, „Genesis”, the result of an epic eight-yearexpedition to rediscover the mountains, deserts and oceans, the animalsand peoples that have so far escaped the imprint of modern society -the land and life of a still-pristine planet. „Some 46 per cent of theplanet is still as it was in the time of genesis,” Salgado reminds us.”We must preserve what exists.”
The Genesis project, along withSalgado’s Instituto Terra, are dedicated to showing the beauty of ourplanet, reversing the damage done to it, and preserving it for thefuture. Over 32 trips – traveled by foot, light aircraft, seagoingvessels, canoes, and even balloons, through extreme heat and cold and insometimes dangerous conditions – Salgado created a collection of imagesshowing us nature, animals, and indigenous peoples in such shocking andintense beauty as to take one’s breath away. Mastering the monochromewith an extreme deftness to rival the virtuoso Ansel Adams, Salgadobrings black and white photography to a new dimension; the tonalvariations in his works, the contrasts of light and dark, recall theworks of Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Georges de la Tour. On theearth is instilled a glistening, textured fabric so intricate in itsweave that even the most finite details seem to extend to infinity.
Whatdoes one discover in „Genesis”? The ancient animal species andvolcanoes of the Galapagos; penguins, sea lions, cormorants, and whalesof the Antarctic and South Atlantic; Brazilian alligators and jaguars;African lions, leopards, and elephants; the isolated Zo’e tribe deep inthe Amazon jungle; the Stone Age Kurowai people of West Papua; nimadicDinka cattle farmers in Sudan; Nenet nomads and their reindeer herds inthe Arctic Circle; Mentawai jungle communities on islands west ofSumatra; the icebergs of the Antarctic; the volcanoes of Central Africaand the Kamchatka Peninsula; Saharan deserts; the Negro and Jurua riversin the Amazon; the ravines of the Grand Canyon; the glaciers ofAlaska…and beyond. Having gone, quite literally in some cases, whereno man has gone before, and having spent so much time, energy, andpassion dedicated to the making of this work, Salgado likens „Genesis”to „my love letter to the planet.”
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