Sebastião Salgado’s Genesis; Explained at TED, Displayed in LA

Sebastião Salgado: Genesis

Sebastião Salgado is the Brazilian photographer who worked as an economist before picking up a camera and creating extraordinary images — among them the series Workers and Migrations and Portraits — that depict economic injustice with a force that confirms the notion that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Now, his LA dealer, Peter Fetterman, left, has unveiled a show of Salgado’s Genesis project, a collection of images of people, animals and nature that have been as yet untouched by the forces of industrialization. The series was inspired by Salgado’s own work, with his work partner and wife Leila, in regenerating the ecosystem of the farmland he had grown up on, a project he explains at this very popular TED Talk.

Peter Fetterman explains the project, both its activist origins — “it’s Salgado’s wake-up call” to save what’s left untarnished of the planet — and the technical accomplishments that make Salgado so highly esteemed as a photographer. He emphasizes the importance of printing, saying that to achieve the depth and gloss of each of the images on display, the discerning Salgado will have tossed tens that did not meet his satisfaction.

Genesis, by Sebastião Salgado, is on display at the Peter Fetterman Gallery at Bergamot Station through October 19. Listen to Peter talk about it on this DnA interview, below. Listen to more about art photography, including a discussion about Leica and the Annenberg’s new Helmut Newton exhibit, on this DnA.