Sebastião Salgado: Genesis

“In GE­NE­SIS, my ca­me­ra al­lo­wed na­tu­re to speak to me. And it was my pri­vi­le­ge to lis­ten.”

Se­bas­tião Sal­ga­do pho­to­gra­p­her (born Ai­mo­rés, Bra­zil, 1944) fol­lo­wing his pre­vi­o­us long-term pro­jects, bet­ween 2004 and 2011 made more than 30 dif­fe­rent trips into the dis­tant cor­ners of the globe to cap­tu­re na­tu­re in its ori­gi­nal state. After nu­me­rous succ­ess­ful ex­hi­bit­ions the Ge­ne­sis pro­ject  - con­sisting of 245 spec­ta­cu­lar black and white pho­to­gra­phs – now in Bu­da­pest! 

An ex­hi­bit­ion or­ga­ni­zed by Lélia WA­NICK SAL­GA­DO, the ex­hi­bit­ion Cura­tor.

With the sup­port of the Bra­zi­li­an com­pany VALE

The pat­rons of the ex­hi­bit­ion: Dr. János Áder, Pres­ident of Hun­gary and Maria Laura da Rocha, Ext­ra­or­di­nary and Plen­i­po­ten­ti­ary Am­bas­sa­dor of the Fe­de­ral Re­pub­lic of Bra­zil.

Wit­hin the ex­hi­bit­ion dates there will be a scre­e­ning of The Salt of the Earth (110 min) a bio­gra­phi­cal do­cu­men­tary film port­ray­ing  Se­bas­tião Sal­ga­do, di­rec­ted by Wim Wen­ders and Ju­li­a­no Ri­bei­ro Sal­ga­do.

Ge­ne­sis is a pho­to­gra­phic journey into the pla­net – an ex­pe­di­ti­on to re­dis­co­ver the moun­tains, de­serts and oceans, the ani­mals and peoples that have so far es­ca­ped the imp­rint of mo­dern so­ci­ety. The land and life of a still pris­tine pla­net. Yet Ge­ne­sis is also a pro­ject that spe­aks ur­gently to our own age. By port­ray­ing the breath­tak­ing be­auty of a “lost” world that som­ehow sur­vi­ves, it proc­la­ims: this is what is in peril, this is what we must save. Ge­ne­sis is Se­bas­tião Sal­ga­do’s third long-term exp­lo­ra­ti­on of glo­bal is­sues, fol­lo­wing Wor­kers and Mig­ra­tions, his exa­mi­na­tions of the human toll wro­ught by ra­di­cal eco­no­mic and so­ci­al chan­ge. This time, he is add­r­es­sing our na­tu­ral en­vi­ron­ment in of­fe­ring a love poem in ima­ges to the ma­jesty and fra­gi­lity of our pla­net.

Wor­king as al­ways in black-and-white, Sal­ga­do has built his dos­si­er du­ring more than 30 dif­fe­rent trips to dis­tant cor­ners of the globe. Each sor­tie from his base in Paris took se­ve­ral weeks and in­vol­ved light airc­raft, he­li­cop­ters, se­a­go­ing ves­sels and ca­no­es as well as long hikes th­ro­ugh very dif­fi­cult ter­ra­in in ext­re­mes of heat and cold. Ha­v­ing begun these voyages in 2004, Sal­ga­do has comp­le­ted Ge­ne­sis at the end of 2011. In cons­ider­ing how to pre­sent Ge­ne­sis, we ini­ti­ally opted for a the­ma­tic app­ro­ach high­ligh­ting the earth’s ge­ophy­si­cal origins, its ani­mals, pri­mi­tive peoples and early so­ci­eti­es. But the very re­mo­te­ness of re­gions vi­si­ted by Sal­ga­do meant that they often cont­ri­bu­ted ima­ges to se­ve­ral the­mes. We have the­re­fo­re de­ci­ded to or­ga­ni­ze the pho­to­gra­phs into broadly-de­fi­ned ecosys­tems which, we be­li­eve, best mir­ror how na­tu­re works. Our aim is to open the eyes of the pub­lic to the mar­vels to be found on earth, not only those that we have had the pri­vi­le­ge of find­ing and re­cord­ing for Ge­ne­sis, but also those in the lakes and hills and the parks and gar­dens that are wit­hin easy reach of our homes and rep­re­sent our most fre­qu­ent con­tact with Na­tu­re. After all, it is in our daily lives that the batt­le for con­ser­va­ti­on beg­ins. For this very rea­son, our hope is that those who come to view and de­ba­te Ge­ne­sis will do so, not simply as in­ter­es­ted ob­ser­vers but as ac­tive sta­ke­hold­ers in a uni­vers­al her­i­tage that is crying out for our care and at­tent­ion.

The ima­ges are pre­sen­ted in 5 geo­gra­phic sec­tions:

Pla­net South

Tells the story of Ant­arc­ti­ca, its fro­z­en lands­ca­pes and se­as­ca­pes and its hardy ani­mals, pen­guins, sea-lions and wha­les, no­t­ably those pho­to­gra­phed in their bre­e­ding ground in the Val­dés Pe­nin­su­la.

Then in South Geor­gia, the Falk­lands, the Diego Ra­mi­rez ar­chi­pe­la­go and the Sand­wich Is­lands, the nu­me­rous spe­ci­es of pen­guins, al­bat­ros­ses, wide-win­ged giant pet­rels and cor­mor­ants make their li­ving.

Sanc­tu­a­ri­es

Opens with the uni­que volc­anic lands­ca­pes and fauna of the Ga­lá­pa­gos Is­lands and emb­ra­ces the an­ci­ent peoples of New Gui­nea and Irian Jaya, the Men­ta­wai of Si­ber­ut Is­land off In­don­esia’s Su­mat­ra pro­vin­ce as well as lands­ca­pes, wild­life and ve­ge­ta­ti­on of Ma­da­gas­car's dif­fe­rent ecosys­tems.

Afri­ca

Of­fers huge va­ri­ety, rang­ing from the ext­ra­or­di­nary wild­life of the Ok­avan­go Delta in

Bots­wa­na to the go­ril­las of the Vi­run­ga Park bor­der­ing Rwan­da, Congo and Ugan­da; from the Himba people of Na­mi­bia and the Din­kas tri­be­smen of Sudan to the San people of Bots­wa­na’s Ka­la­ha­ri De­sert; from the South Omo tri­bes of so­ut­hern Ethi­o­pia to the an­ci­ent Ch­ris­ti­an com­mu­ni­ti­es of nor­t­hern Ethi­o­pia.

Afri­ca un­ve­ils the re­mar­ka­ble tones of de­serts, their tex­tu­res rang­ing from sandy to rocky; some flat as oceans, ot­hers in­ter­rup­ted by arid moun­tains.

Nor­t­hern Spa­ces

Shows the lands­ca­pes of Alas­ka and the Col­ora­do pla­teau in the USA, Klu­a­ne Na­ti­o­nal Park’s lands­ca­pes and wild­life in Baf­fin Is­land in Ca­na­da. Rus­sia’s far north, inc­lu­ding the wal­rus bre­e­ding ground on Wran­gel Is­land, the Ne­nets ind­i­ge­no­us peoples in nor­t­hern Si­be­ria as well as the Kam­chat­ka pe­nin­su­la.

Ama­zo­nia and Pan­tanal

Co­vers the giant rain fo­rest, seen from space, the Ama­zon and its tri­bu­ta­ri­es re­semb­le a giant tree of life, with arms and hands re­a­ch­ing from the heart of Bra­zil to­wards the ne­igh­bor­ing count­ri­es. Re­a­ch­ing north to cap­tu­re Ve­ne­zu­e­la’s Te­pu­is, the old­est ge­o­log­i­cal for­ma­tions on earth, as well as the wild­life of Pan­tanal in Bra­zil’s Mato Gros­so; also inc­lu­ded are ima­ges of the Zo’e In­di­an tribe, “con­tac­ted” for the first time only two de­ca­des ago, and the more as­si­mi­la­ted tri­bes of the Upper Xingu Basin in Bra­zil.