Photography and the Climate crisis: Sebastião Salgado’s ‘Genesis’
Words by Maya Bewley
‘How can we reconcile a world filled with so much destruction?’ Is a question Sebastião Salgado reiterates in his 2004-2011 series, ‘Genesis’. Once deemed a ‘social photographer’, Salgado spent years documenting horrors of humanity: war, famine, environmental disaster (though warranting the problematic nature of this photographic genre). But in ‘Genesis’, Salgado turns his camera to a redemptive gaze of nature. Instead of the burning oil fields in his 1991 project (Kuwait: A desert on fire), we enter a world of prelapsarian bliss. Swathes of lush forests unfurl, busy herds congregate, and humans working alongside nature, not against it.
Arctic National Refuge, Alaska, 2009
Born in the Brazilian town of Aimorés, Salgado grew up under the blooming shelter of his father’s cattle farm, posited in the Mata Atlântica (Atlantic rainforest). He recalls the ‘paradise’ of his childhood as an eden of ‘birds’, ‘jaguars’ and ‘crocodiles’ [1]. The landscape was a haven- here he learned to ‘shape’ his ‘way of seeing’ [2]. Salgado left the haven as a young man to become an economist, which he later abandoned for a successful career in photography.
Southern Elephant Seals, South Georgia, 2009.
After several prolific decades (which included collections ‘Migrations’ and ‘Workers’), he finally returned to the farm with his wife, Leila, to look after his father in ill health. Yet what he saw was now a barren wasteland. The trees had been cut down. The soil was eroded. Years of environmental degradation had devastated the farm. So, Leila Salgado suggested they start replanting the forest, which quickly became a huge task. As they were beginning to restore the land, Salgado birthed the idea for a new photographic project: ‘Genesis’.
Southern Right Whale, Argentina, 2004
Instead of grieving, Salgado’s answer to the loss of nature was to grasp onto its beauty. ‘’I . thought the only way to give us an incentive, to bring hope, is to show the pictures of the pristine planet’’[3]. Traversing the globe, he often spent months in the places he sought to document- one case is 47 days with the Nenet tribe, in -35C temperatures. Hundreds of places make up ‘Genesis’, but Salgado’s trademark stamp is the use of black and white to build dramatic contrast within the frame. One particularly striking photo is that of a Southern Right whale, off the coast of Argentina. The splash of a tail encompasses the image, and the whale’s huge contours unfold as if they were vast mountains themselves.
Below, countless water droplets are suspended in motion, half crashed toward the sea again. Stark contrasts between light and dark radiate a dramatic pulse throughout the photo. What Salgado excels at is capturing the intimidating enormity of nature, as well as the sheer excitement of a chance event most audiences are unable to witness first hand. In another photo, native Xingu Waura Indians are fishing. Equally compelling, yet this time the performance of a splash is swapped for a hazy visual cruise along the lake. The soft ripples of water permeate a sun hanging through ethereal clouds, illuminating the fishermen’s paddles which stand silhouetted against the mist. Contrast is still employed, but used more sparingly, to demarcate the subjects whilst the rest of the photo merges into tonal shades. The title ‘Genesis’ resounds here, a tranquil view of humans and nature living in harmony, before the ‘fall from grace’
Waura Indians, Upper Xingu, Mato Grosso, 2005.
So how does ‘Genesis’ situate itself in relation to the climate crisis today, seven years later? With recent reports suggesting CO2 emissions are to set a new record despite Covid-19 lockdowns [4], and various other environmental setbacks this year, the urgency to tackle the crisis is as dire as ever. If there’s anything that ‘Genesis’ sets apart from the typical (yet understandable) responses, is its capacity for optimism. There are still places that are beautifully preserved, and there are humans who look after these places without destroying them.
Reforestation of Salgado's farm, Instituto Terra
And any testament to this statement is in Salgado’s own success at recuperating his father’s farm mentioned earlier. Forming the Instituto Terra (Earth Institute) with his wife, together they managed to successfully organise a communal effort to replant the rainforest. There are now more than 2 million trees planted, and many species that had disappeared now find the institute a ‘safe haven’ [5]. The land is no longer privately owned by the Salgados, but a national park that belongs to everybody. Thus Salgado’s ‘Genesis’ presents the beauty of the world, but the question is, will we protect it?
