londonzen - park life

artzen - art culture info expo

bookzen - literary reviews

Salgado - reviewed by KJR for bookzen

Finally after twenty years, Sebastiao Salgado's images are being published, as described in an excellent article in the New York Times. Considering himself a photojournalist of the world's less fortunate, the Brazilian photographer uses the camera to bring information to others. He says of photography,that it is only a language: what is more important, is what is being discussed. Though Salgado, like Atget, Cartier Bresson, Ansel Adams, Lee Miller, Robert Frank, and Stieglitz, can say this since the language his Leica produces in his hands is highly articulate.

Reportedly, this book Sahel:The End of the Road, was not published earlier because agents and publishers who saw the images were reduced to tears, and felt that no one would want to buy such a book. Salgado, who has taken photos in Vietnam, India and Africa, responded that it is our moral obligation to understand the fate of the others! So much for spin, design over content, ignoring what is really going on, and Fox News. Perhaps, quite tellingly, the book is not being published in the heartland, but by that bastion of eccentricity (thank god!), The University of California Press, as a joint project between the departments of photography and journalism at Berkeley. Not surprisingly those bystanders to the War on Terror, France and Spain thought the book important enough to be published way back in the mid-eighties. (Is there a connection between that event and recent international headlines?)

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The Instituto Terra, a non-profit organization created by Sebastiao Salgado and Lelia Wanick Salgado, proposes a highly innovative approach to Brazil's deforestation crisis.

How to help
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Power: Auction at Bloomberg, Nov 17th 2004 - An auction of
prints by world-class photographers

Mighty names from the world of art and documentary photography have donated 60 power-inspired prints for a charity auction on Wednesday 17 November at the Bloomberg auditorium in the City.

For the second year running, PhotoVoice has invited world-class photographers to contribute to this prestige event whichwill raise money for its projects around the world.

Among the contributors are Sebastiao Salgado, Juergen Teller, Sarah Moon, and Philip Jones Griffiths. Particularly compelling are images of George W. Bush (Larry Downing/ Reuters), Kevin Spacey outside the Old Vic (Nobby Clark) and Yann Arthus Bertrand’s magnificent ariel shot of the Kenyan Savannah. Thomas Hoepker (Magnum Photos) has donated his iconic image of Muhammed Ali from 1966.

Wednesday 17th November 6.30-9pm £10 donation

Bloomberg L.P
39-45 Finsbury Square London EC2A 1PQ