Singart“Genesis”: Pursuing Eden
Sebastiao Salgado’s “Genesis” results from an 8-year expedition, in epic proportions, of rediscovering, through painstaking photo realism, the commanding mountains, the sweeping deserts, the deepest oceans, the still abundant fauna and tribalistic peoples who have to this day escaped the conversion to modern society, as well as the seemingly endless stretches of land and ways of life harboured by the untouched still pristine portions of our planet.
This spectacular exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore is devoted to lovingly show the quintessential beauty of our natural world in obvious hope of reversing the insidious damage already done to it, and its whole-hearted preservation for the future of our children, their children and the countless generations that come there after.
Consequently, Salgado’s vividly striking photographs succeed in bringing very much into view the crystal clear reminder that only almost 46% of planet Earth is still as it was in the time of primordial genesis… and that we must, at all cost, preserve what remains in existence as God intended naturally from this day.
Therefore, through his telephoto lenses, we are invited to re-discover the diversity of animal life and equally diverse range of volcanoes of the Galapagos, the ever so quaint penguins, sea lions, cormorants and whales populating the vast South Atlantic, the menacing alligators and jaguars of Brazil, and the majestic African lions, leopards and elephants.
We are also taken on an extraordinary journey over gigantic icebergs in the remote Antarctic, the myriad of volcanoes dominating Central Africa, the splendid ravines traversing the Grand Canyon, the exotic Negro and Jurua rivers deep in the heart of the Amazon, and the sub-zero glaciers of wild Alaska.
Then we are brought face-to-face with the truly isolated Zo’e tribe in the very depths of the Amazon jungle, the remarkable unchanged Stone Age Korowai people of West Papua, the happily nomadic Nordic Dinka Cattle farmers in Sudan, the contented Nenets nomads and their equally happy herds of reindeer in the vast Arctic Circle, as well as the refreshingly different Metawai jungle communities on numerous islands doting west of Sumatra.
Captured over 30 trips travelled on humble foot, on air- and sea-going vessels – including canoes, and even balloons – and in spiraling high heat and bone-penetrating cold, and with more than a handful of times when conditions are frighteningly dangerous, Salgado’s extensive collection of gripping images offers us nature, animals and indigenous peoples in an array of such shockingly intense beauty we are equally drawn in to beholding each photo in complete awe and wonder.
It comes as no surprise that he moves us to view them not as just rare images: we are faced with the stark reality that they are intimate love letters Salgado has written to the planet… each waxing lyrical of a deep respect and devoted fondness for nature that hark back to his days growing up on a farm in Brazil.
Without a doubt, they are a natural extension of his earlier works in “Workers” and “Migration”. In these 2 provocative predecessors, Salgado’s photos reported on the plight of humanity and their population movements around the world as effected by their social-economic circumstances. In “Genesis”, he insidiously focuses our attention on what the world untouched by man’s modern social-economic situations can be like.
It becomes a homage to human communities that continue to live life in accordance to their ancient cultures and traditions, and to question whether we, embroidered into a consumerist culture in the developed world, are in any way better off. To me, that brings lucidly to mind the argument that we may well re-discover our Eden by reversing this ‘progression’ – by redefining our cities through a reforestation programme of our own. And hence, lead like all great leaders do – by example: systematically and whole-heartedly restoring what is left untouched by human hands in our natural world.
As such, these exquisitely reproduced large-format images Salgado deliberately arranged neither by theme nor region: they are brilliantly conceptualized as a breath-taking portfolio that takes us on a spell-blinding quest around our globe; beseechingly drawing us into his grand vision of the Earth’s mesmerizing beauty in its immense scale and order.
What will delight us even more is Salgado’s success in telling this new story through his time honoured professional photo tradition – shooting yet again in his preferred chiaroscuro palette of black-and-white images, each with very little colour. It clearly shows that he is a true master of the monochrome – very much in the same league as the renowned virtuoso Ansel Adams, as well as the signature tonal variations and contrasts of light and dark much treasured by painterly masters of old like Rembrandt and Georges de La Tour.
This, in turn, resoundingly confirms his decision to give up shooting in colour early in his photo-journalistic career: it is still very much a pure stroke of artistic genius – we will never be left to wonder whether his “Genesis” message will be more urgently earth-shattering in full colour.
Immerse in Salgado’s homage to the re-“Genesis” of all of Mother Earth at the National Museum of Singapore, at 93 Stamford Road, Singapore 178897 before this rare exhibition ends on 27 July this year.
