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THE NEXUS OF ART AND SOCIAL DOCUMENTARY: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF SEBASTIÃO SALGADO |
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By Peter Kupfer BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, 5 JUNE 2009 — The David Brower Center, a new institute for environmental and social action that opened recently in Berkeley, has chosen an appropriate subject for its inaugural exhibition. Then and Now features 25 large-scale black-and-white images by the renowned Brazilian documentary photographer and environmentalist Sebastião Salgado. Although small in size, the show contains works that span Salgado's remarkable career, from his monumental projects Workers and Migrations to his current endeavor, Genesis, a seven-year exploration of the earth's rapidly disappearing pristine environments.
The show contains all the characteristics we have come to expect in Salgado's work - provocative subjects, dramatic compositions, strong technique. In one of the most powerful photographs, taken in Mali in 1985, the silhouette of an emaciated boy striding across a dried-up lake bed is echoed by the shriveled trees in the background. Another striking image depicts four workers with bundles of wood strapped to their backs slogging across a cloud-shrouded mountain pass in Mexico - a crucifixion scene Hollywood would die for.
What is missing from this show is a sense of context. It simply tries to cover too much ground in too little space. It's almost like listening to a greatest hits album or reading the Cliff notes of a classic novel. You get a taste of the artist's work without understanding how it evolved. What came before? What came after? How do the pieces fit together?
In a way Salgado's strengths are also his weaknesses. His compositions are almost too perfect, his subjects too poignant. I am not suggesting (as some critics have) that some of his photographs were staged, but they sometimes feel too calculated and slick. A close-up of the scaly, clawed foot of an iguana gripping the ground in Mali, for example, would make an excellent publicity shot for a Hollywood monster flick. And a photograph of a Guatemalan woman peering out a window at a young girl balancing a tray of candied apples is enchanting, but the overly tight cropping gives it a theatrical flair.
Another thing I found disappointing about the show was that all the prints save one were produced from digital scans of the original negatives. (The only exception is a marvelous picture of a mudman squatting against the trunk of a massive, moss-covered tree in Papua New Guinea, which was shot with a digital camera.) To my eye these digital prints lacked the sharpness and tonal range of a silver gelatin print made directly from a negative. I asked Mr. Salgado about this at the opening reception and he insisted that the digital prints were actually sharper than prints made from negatives. Perhaps so, but I found the "noise" and contrast of the digital prints distracting.
Then and Now: Photographs by
Sebastião Salgado Title image: Sebastião
Salgado: (Detail) A cattle camp in southern Sudan in 2006, From
Genesis Peter Kupfer is a former editor on the National / Foreign desk at The San Francisco Chronicle. His freelance articles on the arts, travel and technology have appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Asian Art News and other publications. He last wrote on Richard J. Tofel's new book, Restless Genius: Barney Kilgore, The Wall Street Journal, and the Invention of Modern Journalism for Culturekiosque.com Related Culturekiosque Archives Photojournalist Wins Photographer of the Year for Afghanistan Picture 'The Valley' Photography Book Review: Paris 1962 Interview: Steve McCurry: Capturing the Face of Asia Dying Darfur: Sudan Genocide Subject of New DVD, Book Desert Botanical Garden Hosts Glass Artist Dale Chihuly FreeRice.com: Hungry Minds Feed Hungry Mouths Cybermarketing the Famous, Well-Dressed and Nude War in Iraq: The Coordinates of Conflict-Photographs by VII Photography into Art into Money 2008: Year of the Rat, Leap Year... and Now, Year of the Frog? Barack Obama: The New Caesar Africanus? Or, What the hell is Chris Matthews Talking About? Exhibition Review: Henry Wessel Photographs Black History in Pictures: The Photographs of Charles "Teenie" Harris Penguins to Get Protection Under Endangered Species Anthony Suau, Beyond The Fall: The Former Soviet Bloc in Transition 1989 - 1999 | |
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