Chronicler of a threatened world
Venerated photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado opens an exhibition of his work in Bangkok this week
Sebastiao Salgado, one of the world’s most celebrated documentary photographers, will be in Bangkok on Wednesday to open his first major show in Thailand, “The World Through His Eyes”.
The 72-year-old Brazilian photojournalist will be sharing 100 of his characteristically powerful black-and-white images at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, spanning three decades of his career.
Salgado has documented social injustices and threatened lives in more than 100 countries. He famously immerses himself in his chosen subject matter, living for weeks in the midst of the people or animals he is chronicling to fully understand their predicament. The aim always is to be a participant in the story – and to find that single frame that captures the fragility of a vanishing world or the fortitude of the human spirit.
“Southern Right Whale, Valdes Peninsula, Argentina”, 2004 @Sebastiao Salgado/Amazonas Images
From haunting images of disappearing landscapes to scenes chronicling the mass displacement of people across the globe, each of his works is infused with empathy and respect.
The Bangkok show will include Salgado’s best-known series – Workers (1986–1992), Exodus (1993–1999) and Genesis (2004–2011) – along with a portfolio of silver-gelatin prints titled “Other Americas”. It’s been arranged by the Royal Photographic Society of Thailand and culture centre, in collaboration with Sundaram Tagore Galleries.
Salgado has earned numerous photographic prizes and is a goodwill ambassador for Unicef and an honorary member of the US Academy of Arts and Sciences. Exhibitions of his work have long toured the world. Salgado’s life and career was detailed in the 2013 book “From My Land to the Planet” and the 2014 documentary film “The Salt of the Earth” by Wim Wenders and Sebastiao’s son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado earned an Oscar nomination.
As seen in the Wenders movie, Salgado and his wife Leila have since the 1990s been labouring to restore a small part of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. In 1998 it was declared a nature reserve, enjoying government protection. It’s now home to the Instituto Terra they founded to pursue conservation and educate the public.
A CAREER OF CARING
- Opening on Wednesday, “Sebastiao Salgado: The World Through His Eyes” continues through March 8 on the eighth floor of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.
- Learn more at www.BACC.or.th.
