Raised on a farm in Brazil, photographer Sebastião Salgado possesses a deep love and respect for nature; he is also particularly sensitive to the ways in which human beings are affected by their often devastating socio-economic conditions. Of the myriad works Salgado has produced in his acclaimed career, three long-term projects stand out: Workers (1993), documenting the vanishing way of life of manual laborers across the world, Migrations (2000), a tribute to mass migration driven by hunger, natural disasters, environmental degradation and demographic pressure, and this new opus, Genesis, the result of an epic eight-year expedition to rediscover the mountains, deserts and oceans, the animals and peoples that have so far escaped the imprint of modern society - the land and life of a still-pristine planet.
"Some 46% of the planet is still as it was in the time of genesis," Salgado reminds us. "We must preserve what exists." The Genesis project, along with the Salgados' Instituto Terra, are dedicated to showing the beauty of our planet, reversing the damage done to it, and preserving it for the future.
Over 32 trips - traveled by foot, light aircraft, seagoing vessels, canoes, and even balloons, through extreme heat and cold and in sometimes dangerous conditions - Salgado created a collection of images showing us nature, animals, and indigenous peoples in breathtaking resplendence. Using solely black-and-white photography, Salgado instills a glistening, textured fabric so intricate in its weave that even the most finite details seem to extend to infinity.
What does one discover in Genesis? The animal species and volcanoes of the Galápagos; penguins, sea lions, cormorants, and whales of the Antarctic and South Atlantic; Brazilian alligators and jaguars; African lions, leopards, and elephants; the isolated Zo'é tribe deep in the Amazon jungle; the Stone Age Korowai people of West Papua; nomadic Dinka cattle farmers in Sudan; Nenet nomads and their reindeer herds in the Arctic Circle; Mentawai jungle communities on islands west of Sumatra; the icebergs of the Antarctic; the volcanoes of Central Africa and the Kamchatka Peninsula; Saharan deserts; the Negro and Juruá rivers in the Amazon; the ravines of the Grand Canyon; the glaciers of Alaska... and beyond. Edited and designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado, this publication documents Salgado's triumphant and unparalleled Genesis project via a selection of images arranged in five chapters geographically:
Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Northern Spaces, Amazonia and Pantanal. Having spent so much time, energy, and passion dedicated to the making of this work, Salgado likens Genesis to
"my love letter to the planet."