「Look at the Picture and Talk about the Painting」Salgado: The Redeemer in the Darkness

Can documentary photography and the pursuit of perfection coexist? Yes, it’s possible, but it’s extremely difficult to achieve! However, Sebastião Salgado managed to do it. With nearly perfect composition, lighting, and black-and-white texture, he presented the most profound suffering and the most genuine beauty of human civilization.

The “Labourer” series focuses on the vanishing manual labor worldwide. The hunched figures in the Brazilian gold mines, the sweaty figures in the Indian coal mines, are a solemn snapshot of the vanishing history of labor. The emaciated scenes of famine in Africa, the pain in Rwanda, the scorched land of the Gulf War – he fearlessly ventured into dangerous situations, using his camera to ring the alarm bell for human conscience. After enduring trauma, “The Genesis” returned to nature in eight years, showcasing the original beauty of the planet with the creatures of the primitive grasslands and the light and shadow of the pure glaciers.

He once felt his soul exhausted from facing the darkness. Over the course of twenty years, he planted over 2 million trees to heal himself and rebuild his homeland. Documenting the darkness is not about evoking despair; rather, it is through the most extreme images to awaken empathy, and with the courage to gaze upon suffering, to illuminate the path that humanity pursues light and redemption.

The tea for today is all gone. Next time, I’ll brew a fresh pot and enjoy art with you again.