There is
always something you regret not doing or not acquiring on a trip. In this
instance it was a signed copy of the book Genesis by the legendary photographer
Sebastiao Salgado. I have had to buy my own unsigned copy. Sigh....The book and
exhibition Genesis is the culmination of eight years of work. Genesis is the third long-term series
on global issues by world-renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado, following Workers (1993)
and Migrations (2000). The exhibition draws together
more than 200 spectacular black-and-white photographs of wildlife, landscapes,
seascapes, and indigenous peoples—raising public awareness about the pressing
issues of environment and climate change. The exhibition at the International
Centre for Photography in NYC is an overwhelming experience as most of
his exhibitions are. This though was a major break in the tradition of work
that Salgado has produced since first picking up a camera at the age of 26. He
has photographed much of what is bleak about humanity.
"You have to understand that he came to the end of something. He came
to the heart of darkness; the hell had really gotten to him and I don't think
he was able to live. He may not have found the way out of it if it hadn't been
for his new encounter with nature. It was a redemption. Planting rainforest,
reanimating dead ground, pulled him out of the terrible hole he was in and
he reinvented himself as well as his photography."
The works on
display are images made across all the continents and celebrate the almost 50
percent of the world still untrammelled by human intervention. You cannot but
be impressed by the extraordinary diversity of our planet and of course the
need for us to be part of maintenance of this remarkable place we live on.
Selgado is an inspiration as a photographer and more importantly as a humanist
aware of the bonds we have to our planet. It is interesting in this time of
rapid centralisation into cities and the city as the major creator of ideas due
to the density of people. But this idea of us living cheek by jowl in cities
separates us from much of the planet we inhabit and also the environmental cost
of mass consumption. I am of course as happy as the next person to be
surrounded and to wear beautiful things made by the most creative of us, but we
do need to enquire as to the sustainability of our desires.
The Terra
Firma project started when Sebastiao took over his parents ranch in Brazil. It
had been increasingly deforested and in his lifetime most of the animals had
deserted the property. In this inspirational project he set about creating a
natural wonder by reforesting the ranch. The results are simply amazing and for
the optimists among us show what is possible. In a remarkably short time the
barren, featureless, overworked land has become an ecosystem abundant in plant
and animal life.
The
documentary by Wim Wenders and Sebastiao's son Juliano on his work "the Salt of the Earth" is a wonderful
introduction to his photography and philosophy on photography and our
planet.
I have been
fortunate to have seen Salgado's work for decades and his involvement in the
extraordinary Magnum Photography agency. Anyone with the slightest interest in
photography should acquaint themselves with this group of the most talented and
tenacious photographers. Their work is beyond superlatives.
We are indeed
standing on the shoulders of giants. Listen to Sebastiao Salgado's TED
talk.
It is
interesting in this time of political deniability of our responsibility to pass
onto future generations some unspoilt nature. Visiting the Natural History
Museum in NYC recently I was taken by Theodore Roosevelt's passion for the
preserving of our natural heritage. He signed off on the creation of 5 National
parks and 150 National Forest areas.
“To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land
instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in
undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by
right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”
Theodore
Roosevelt
