Cathy Breslaw's Installation

Cathy Breslaw's Installation
Cathy Breslaw's Installation:Dreamscape

Friday, August 11, 2017

Visual Tribute to Our Fragile Planet - Global Photographer Sebastiao Salgado Helps Us See

Sabastiao Salgado
Genesis
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
(through September 30th)

article by Cathy Breslaw
www.cathybreslaw.com
Sebastiao Salgado       South Sandwich Islands   2009     Chinstrap Penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica)
on an iceberg located between Zavodovski and Visokoi islands

Brazilian photographer Sabastiao Salgado’s work sits in a space between art, documentary and photo-journalism.  His first career and study for a PhD in Economics was followed by the light evoked from childhood memories of riding horses across land on his parent’s farm in the rainforests of Brazil. It is there that the inspiration for his photography practice was generated. His 200 plus collection of black and white medium to large format photographs exhibited at the Museum of Photographic Arts focus on nature and the environment . His images were shot over several years and on many locations around the globe.  From the Brazilian rainforests to the Siberian arctic northern regions on earth, Salgado tracks nomadic tribes, sea and land animals as they live and migrate, to sea and landscapes in their pristine beauty. His aim for Genesis was to investigate air, water and fire – the elements of earth’s beginnings and to bring to our awareness it’s stark and unblemished mark on our humanity. Sometimes shot from hot air balloons so as to not disturb wildlife, Salgado captured hundreds of penguins and reindeer as they migrated, communities of seals quietly lying on rocks, whales poking out of the sea, endangered families of birds flying overhead, and gorillas, elephants and hippos as they performed their daily routines. Salgado traveled to over 100 countries to photograph raw, real events.  In doing so, his images are poetic and beautifully composed, leaving the viewer to feel as if we are in on a secret, capturing people, places and animals in private and revealing moments in time. In the northern arctic regions of Russia, we catch a glimpse of the nomadic Nenets tribe as they appear frozen in snow in their hand-hewn fur jackets and hats traveling across ice with reindeer to the Zo’e tribe in the Brazilian rainforest.  Salgado’s images are a direct documentation of indigenous communities that remain untouched, and serve as examples of our earliest forms of human settlements. Salgado’s classic and realistic photographs sometimes encompass big views of landscapes and seascapes to more intimate images of animals and people.  The result is a rediscovery of our planet and the awareness of its’ preciousness - and the responsibility that we as humans have as guardians of our earth.
 
Sabastiao Salgado   Marine Iguana  (Amblyrhynchus Cristatus)   Galapagos.Ecuador.2004

Southern Right Whales(Eubalaena australis) drawn to the Valdes Peninsula
because of the shelter provided by its two gulfs, The Golfo San Jose and the Golfo Nuevo,
whales often navigate with their tails upright in the water.  Valdes Peninsula, Argentina 2004


Sebastiao Salgado    Teureum, Sikeirei and leader of the Mentawai Clan
This shaman is preparing a filter for sago, with the leaves of this sago tree.
Siberut Island, West Sumatra, Indonesia   2008

Sebastiao Salgado   Women in the Zo'e village of Towari Ypy
use the "urucum"(Bixa Orellana) red fruit to color their bodies.
Para State. Brazil.  2009