Information and expression

Exercise 16 - Read Mraz's essay "Sebastiao Salgado: Ways of Seeing Latin America"

Research the work of by Salgado to which Mraz refers.

As yet I have not been able to track down a copy if Other Americans by Salgado, however, I have made through use of the web - the difficulty is knowing if the images loaded actually come from said book.

Salgados website "Amazonia's images" does not make any specific reference to the book, but there is a portfolio entitled 'Latin America' - this contains 10 images. Interestingly, it includes two of the images refereed to be Marz, namely:

1. The children playing the the bones -Marz states that "infatuation with demise and despondency can be seen in the Brazilian children who lie on a floor, playing with animal bones", I'm sorry I don't see this picture in this light at all, I can't see the 'alluding' to death, nor does is highlight the 'evident poverty'. I does, however, clearly show the vast cultural differences and wealth divide. I do not get the impression from this image that the children feel hard done by, in fact they look very contented playing together - I am very curious to understand their game.
2. The dog at the funeral - I appreciate that this may have offended the Americans at the time, but surely that is just because of a lack of understanding on behalf of the Americans? I have to be honest, I see nothing wrong with the image or the concept of the image. As a dog owner, I would like my dog to attend my funeral...

I think my reading of these images may be 'unfair' since they have been taken out of the context in which they were originally shown - back to Berger (John has a lot to answer for!). Looking at ten apparently abstract images of Latin America, all taken during Salgado's 'roaming about' period (1977 - 1984) I am even more curious to see the book and to understand whether these selected images are the most 'positive of the bunch'. Each of the ten images makes me want to understand more about the individual situation and none of those images give me a feeling of despondency.

If one assumes that Sagado was 'finding feet' as a photographer in his birth country, whilst trying to communicate the 'plight' of Brazil's less fortunate to the rest of the world through their (American, European) eyes; it is possible to understand why Salgado 'over-egged' the doom and gloom angle. A picture speaks a thousand words, therefore, if you paint a very bleak image of poverty and depression and communicate this to a rich country that has just come through a depression (America in the 1940's), you are much more likely to elicit the help and money you need. It's difficult to say that what Salgado did was wrong, bearing in mind his first hand experience of living conditions in Europe versus those in Brazil. I would rather prefer to think of it as a clumsy attempt to do the right thing.

I would suggest that Salgado recognised his previous error because of the way he re-addressed and re-used certain images from Other Americans in his book Terra. This time around rather than implying a negative situation using lots of singular and discrete images, he utilised groups of images that created a narrative as well as providing an historical context to ensure understanding by the audience. This change in approach actually communicated his message much more effectively because it was balanced and anchored in reality.

Migrations, his next book tells the story of people disenfranchised by poverty, war or repression, who are driven to cross boarders (at any cost) in the absolute belief that life must be better on the other side.

I have a copy of Salgado's book, Genesis, in my opinion, the images are beautiful both in terms of the composition and processing. When I originally starting looking through the book, my first impression was they were very black and white - I'm not sure I can enplane that further, other than I felt an intensity from the images that I have not felt with other photographers work - they are very in your face and make you want to look at them; concentrate on them.

Comparing the Latin American images with the Genesis images - the later are significantly more processed and I would put this down to age, life experience, the artist finding his voice; also not forgetting the advances in technology. I would be very interested to see the Latin American images re-processed today.  

One of my favourite Salgado photographs is Church Gate Station, Bombay (Mumbai), India, 1995. I feel I want to be there to experience the situation, but at the time I'm relived that I'm not - how does anybody cope in that level of chaos?


Additional information found during my research:

Talk on TED - Ideas Worth Spreading: Sebastiao Salgado: The silent drama of photographs.
Latest work (May 2013) by Saldago - Ecological Recovery of the Brazilian Rain Forest around his home farm.