ICP Review

The International Center of Photography was an interesting and amazing museum to go visit. I wasn’t sure what to expect prior to visiting and was shocked once I was there. The amount and quality of the pictures was astonishing and made me excited to see more.

            Sebastiao Salgado was born in Brazail in 1944. He began his photographic career in Paris in 1973 with multiple photo agencies. His wife and himself then founded Amazonas Images, which is an agency dedicated only to his work. Sebastiao has traveled to over 100 countries for his projects. In 1990 his wife, Lelia, and him began working to take back the environment in a small part of the Atlantic Forest located in Brazil. They began by giving back a plot of land to nature that they had owned. This continued in 1998 when they made the area into a natural reserve, and created the Instituto Terra, a nonprofit organization. Their mission is aimed at reforestation and environmental education and they believe that we must act to preserve unpolluted land and protect the natural sanctuaries of people and animals. Further, the couple wishes for us to attempt to reverse the damage that has already been done. With this, the Salgado’s have planted over two million trees of 300 different species. The benefits of their work are that the dry hillsides are now filled with growing plants, and animals are returning that weren’t seen for decades. Sebastio and his wife have received many awards and honors for their hard work including UNICEF goodwill ambassador and honorary member of The Academy of Arts and Science in the United States.
        The first two works the couple worked on are called Workers created in 1993 and Migrations created in 2000. These two series “explored displaced populations and relentless working conditions endured by men and women around the world”. Genesis is the third series they created on global issues, specifically to raise public awareness about environmental and climate change issues. It has been put together after multiple years of work and is comprised of over 200 black and white photographs. The subjects of his photographs include wildlife, seascapes landscapes and indigenous, or native, people. Sebastio began in 2004 to try and capture nature in its original state as he traveled across the world. His main focus was arctic and desert landscapes, tropical rainforests, marine and wildlife, and communities living under ancestral traditions. After doing this work he divided his exhibition into five geographical regions that include Sanctuaries, Planet South, Africa, Amazonia and Pantanal, and Northern Spaces.

            The first photograph that really captured my attention was of a marine iguana in the Galapagos in Ecuador. These animals are the only type of iguana that is able to live in salty waters. The first picture I saw was a close up of the iguana’s tail and hind leg in the water. The detail of its scales and spikes are simply amazing. As I kept walking I then saw a photograph of the marine iguana again, except this time it was a close up of its front claw on the land. I was amazed again at the detail and clarity of its scales and claws. I liked how Sebastiao framed just one part of the iguana rather than photographing the entire body. These are special animals since all other iguanas in the world cannot live in salty water. They are also labeled as “vulnerable” since they are only living in the Galapagos Islands and they never developed defenses due to their environment not having many predators. This shows that Sebastiao Salgado wanted to put them on display and show the world how such a unique animal still exists in the world, since the average person probably doesn’t know about them or had ever seen.

Two other photographs that I liked were of a baby elephant in Zambia. The sign said that since elephants are hunted by poachers they get easily scared of humans and vehicles and run into the bush. Knowing this, I was shocked by how Sebastiao captured such an amazing picture with the elephant being so scared and running away. The use of natural sunlight is perfect and really makes the picture. The second picture captures a baby elephant running toward the camera with clouds of dust rising at its feet. I really liked the action being shown as well as the elephant’s ears out wide as it runs. These photographs put on display an endangered animal in its natural habitat that the average person isn’t aware of. 

            Another photograph that struck me was of “the confluence of the Colorado and the Little Colorado from Navajo territory”. This junction is located next to the start of the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. The use of lines in this picture is amazing because they are simply part of nature, embedded in the rock. I think that the black and white effect makes this picture more interesting because it shows the contrast of the lights and darks in the rock. I also like how the clouds are looming above and have a lot of definition to them.

            One last set of photographs that interested me was of the Nenet families and the reindeer in Siberia, Russia. I’ve always related reindeer with Christmas and Santa Claus, so it was really cool to see this animal in a different way. It was amazing to see and read about how they travel north together in huge caravans. I learned that reindeer move in very large herds like the one in the first picture, which was comprised of 6,000! I was surprised to see how close the reindeer and people were which shows that neither is afraid of each other. I liked how the natural habitat of the reindeer was shown as some ran around and some were attached to sleds. There is a focus in the front of the picture on the native people with just one person on a sled attached to a few reindeer. Another one of the pictures in this section was of a herd of reindeer and Nenet families traveling over the Ob River to enter the Arctic Circle. According to the sign, this whole trip takes 31 miles of traveling over ice! It also stated that the way of life of these Nenet people is inseparable from the reindeer. I liked the contrast of the white snow and the dark animals in this photograph. The angle being an aerial shows the extent of the Nenet family trips and how there is not much civilization around.

            Overall I really enjoyed visiting the International Center of Photography. It was a good experience and I got a lot out of the images and the message behind them. I admire Sebastiao and his wife for their hard work to preserve the unpolluted areas of the world and to reverse the damage that has already been done. Salgado is an amazing photographer and has a good reason behind his adventures around the world.

http://www.icp.org/sites/default/files/exhibition_pdfs/icp_sebastiaosalgado_genesis_press.pdf