Sebastiao Salgado’s Photograph’s are displayed in the International Center of Photography (ICP). Inside the gallery, the place was open, but welcoming. The display of the gallery is broken up into five categories, Northern Spaces, Sanctuaries, Africa, Planet South, and Amazonia and Panatela. Each category has roughly about 40-60 photos, the gallery was like a maze, but lead you on to the next one. The walls were different colors to indicate the category one was in. All the photos in the gallery are black and white, some were about landscapes, people and animals. The audience is for the modern people of today, those who day by day don’t notice the damages being caused by us humans. Sebastian Salgado was born on February 8,1944 in Aimores, Brazil. He is 70 years of age. He has traveled in over 100 countries for his photographic projects. The exhibit is titled “Genesis” referring to the beginning of life. His photos talk about the climate change and how others are being effected such as animals. Being aware of this situation there is the possibility that we can change this and make it a new beginning.
The exhibit displays people in their natural habitat. These people are nude and self aware of that, but they don’t pay much mind to that. In the photos the people were shown working together. Also they have symbolic marks on their skin and piercings. Other photos are about landscapes showing the curves and pointy textures they have. Also the smooth blend between landscape and sky complimenting each other. Animals are also shown in their natural habitat. Some animals are shown in packs, others communicating with nature in the water, land and sky. All these moments captured in life are shown away from modern lifestyle. People living without advanced technology, and still managing to survive.
One of my favorite photographs, is the “Southern elephant seal calves at Saint Andrews Bay. South Georgia. 2009”. This photo shows a lot of shadows, which direct light brings out from this photo. As for the tone and contrast this photo is more of a full scale, showing variations of black grey and white. The texture is emphasized due to the lighting the sky gives on the southern elephant seal calves. The focus in this photo is more of an extensive depth of field. While one of the southern elephant seal calves is pretty close and the mountain far away, you can see the distance between them. The viewpoint of this photo is in a high angel. The way this photo is displayed is mostly positive space. The main object here is the animals and the mountain. The mountain portraits horizontal line, which leads your eyes to the clouds. Also the way the animals take most space in this photo, makes the photo off-balances asymmetrical. This photo has to framings. One would be a close up due to the close up on the southern elephant seal calves. The second would be a long shot, because of the distance the mountains gives away.
The exhibit is about “Genesis” the beginning. The gallery shows the life style of animals away from the modern wold. Also people surviving without technology. The third observation is how both animal and human interact with nature and each other. This is giving an overview of how it would be like at the start of a new world, a new lifestyle. The subject is natural habitat. The way modern people live now is hurting nature. The photos is a reminder to see what the world is about and what we are missing when we live our lives day to day without having in mind who we are hurting when driving, wasting water, littering , etc. The way the emotions are expressed is through these black and white photos. Without color it gives you the opportunity to fill in the colors that the photo portrays to you through face expressions, gestures, culture and nature. Sebastiao Salgado is trying to tell us that, there is more to life than just our daily routines.
The exhibit certainly takes outside of our daily routines. For most of us, what Salgado has photographed here is very exotic.
It is possible that as you suggest Salgado has photographed these primitive people to suggest other ways of living than the way those of us who are living in cities live and those ways might better for the health of the planet. I don’t know how useful this is though as most of us find these images strange as opposed to instructive.