This blog will be a place that I post about photographs taken by Sebastiao Salgado and a little about each picture.
Sebastiao Salgado is from Brazil and is a social documentary photographer and photojournalist. He went on a mission to Africa for the International Coffee Organization and this is where he began to start taking photographs. He first starting taking pictures for news assignments and then started to do more documentary type photographs. He has many books of his work and the one that I’m going to be talking about in this blog is his book Migrations. Salgado said, "I hope that the person who visits my exhibitions, and the person who comes out, are not quite the same. I believe that the average person can help a lot, not by giving material goods but by participating, by being part of the discussion, by being truly concerned about what is going on in the world" Salgado didn't take the pictures because he thought they looked good or it was a good shot. He took the pictures for everyone else to make them aware of the circumstances of people that aren't in our communities, in our neighborhoods, in our every day lives. He wanted us to realize that there are people that are less fortunate than me and you and there are things that we can and need to do to help them. They say a pictures is worth a thousand words, and they are right.
This picture is a orthopedic clinic in Kabul, Afghanistan. When I look at it, I have many different thoughts going through my head. As I look at the women helping the young child, I can help but notice and feel the care that she has for this child and that she's helping them do something that they can't do for themselves. I don't know the relation of the women to the child, but no matter what it is, you can tell that she genuinely cares and wants to help the child.
Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations. AMAZONAS Images. Paris. 2000. photograph 78.
www.unicef.org/salgado/bio.htm
I really agree with Salgados quote, about participating is more valuable then material goods. I think he means that if more people were involved, a lot more ideas could be added to help. Ideas like how to help these people out but still abide by the law. Its easier to make someone feel bad or guilty then it is to actual change how that person will act. Feeling bad or guilty is just a temporary feeling but promoting change is powerful and that is Salgados noble goal. I feel that the idea that these pictures will live on long past Salgado or the people that there of. They will be a great reminder to us all that this still is happening today in one form or another. We should not just sit passively by and do nothing, but try to help out in anyway we can regardless if its big or little.
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