Sebastião Salga

Sebastiao Salga is one of the photographers that I was recommended to look at in my feed back session.

An exemplar of the tradition of 'concerned photography', he is one of the most widely-respected of contemporary photojournalists. His in-depth bodies of work document the lives of people the world over, finding beauty, strength and hope even in those in the bleakest of circumstances. He captures the human side of a global story that all too often involve death, destruction or decay

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Figure 1 (Elephants (Loxodonta africana) in Kafue National Park, Zambia, 2010))is from the Genesis exhibition in 2013. The culmination of 8 years’ work, Sebastião Salgado: Genesis draws together images of landscapes and wildlife, alongside depictions of human communities that continue to live in accordance with their ancestral traditions and cultures.

The majesty of nature and the balance of human relationships with our fragile planet are explored through over 200 spectacular black and white photographs by the world-leading photographer.

This amazing photo shows an elephant walking through rays of

 sunlight while dust is covering the area.The elaphent looks like a shadow. The image is broken up with the tree branches and plants. I think what makes the photo so captivating is that it was photographed in black and white were if it was photographed in colour I think it would loos some of its appeal.

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Figure 2 is from a series based in Africa, a 30-year journey across the dark continent  Salgado shows us all facets of African life today. The photo shows young men herding cows the main focus on the young man in the front of the photograph with his hand on the cow, what draws you in is the cows horns which are extraordinary with their size and the decorative parts that are hanging from the horns. It shows the culture and their customs from just what they are wearing and hoe they decorate their cattle.

Figur 3 show the customs of one of the tribe in Africa. How the woman wear the disc in their lips to show their dowry as a perspective bride this is something that interest me as its different from what I would see. It also makes you think about how salga is studding these African tribes.

 

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Figure 4  and 5 show workers at oil wells in Kuwait. The photographs are a great documentary set showing how hard working on a oil well can be. The whole series show the workers in their oil covered overalls. I really like how different this series is to his African and Genesis series as this is a hard working environment not a cultural one even though you can say that the oil well workers are a type of culture as it is a way of life in some areas of the world.

"you sometimes spend a lot of time with them - weeks and sometimes months. You become part of the group that becomes your life and you not only speak together but you also become friends" An interesting quote that is what I will be doing with this project.

I think you can look at Sabatiao Salga as an anthropologist as he studied other culture and environments that were unknown to him.

Sebatiao salga is an very interesting photojournalist and I can see him influencing my work in this project as I am documenting the life's of the Buddhist in the temple were as he documented the life's of the African tribes, but he photographed them in their own environment which I hope to do in future project in photographic career.