‘First of all move me, surprise me, rend my heart; make me tremble, weep, shudder; outrage me, delight my eyes afterwards, if you can.’
– Denis Diderot
I was watching a BBC programme about the Louvre in Paris and the above quote by the 18th century French philosopher and critic Denis Diderot grabbed my attention. At the time he was encouraging artists to move away from the excessive mannerism of the rococo style. This is a cry for content over form in art…..and if he were alive today Diderot might be making the same appeal to photographers. Having observed the debate about Salgado’s Genesis on the Weareoca website this comment seemed particularly timely.
I must go the Salgado exhibition so I can join in the debate. I have held back because I was put off by the exhibition’s billing as the ‘…world premiere of Sebastião Salgado: Genesis [which] unveils extraordinary images of landscapes, wildlife and remote communities by this world-renowned photographer.’ The fact that the exhibition was curated by Salgado’s wife also worried me a little. I am not sure why this is. Perhaps it is because the Natural History Museum appear to be condoning self promotion and nepotism. It also struck me that staging the exhibition at the Natural History Museum seems to provide the work with a scientific stamp of approval, which is strange given that it is just one man’s view and is in no way a scientific survey.
The basic idea behind the work was that Salgado would go out into the world to find people, animals and places untouched by our modern way of life. In an interview with publishers Taschen Salgado stated that he found that close to half the planet is in a pristine state. This seems a quite remarkable and potentially misleading statement.
What is also unclear is what lessons we can learn from these remote communities and places. Indeed it is hard to see what these might be. Are we all supposed to step back in time and revert to a primitive lifestyle? To be honest the few images I have seen on the website seem like a mixture of romantic landscapes, powerful wildlife imagery and ‘colonialist style’ representations of people from remote communities, offering them up as objects for the Western gaze. There are several images of the tail fins of whales for example….are we to take these as evidence that whales are flourishing?
As I have not been to the exhibition my observations are premature, so I will hold judgement until I’ve been. However, I fear that Salgado’s practice aims to delight the eyes first and to leave open the question why we should be moved, outraged and so on (Perhaps it is simply expected that we will be moved by the extraordinary skill of the world renowned photographer Salgado).
…..we shall see.
photo-graph 
vickiuvc
July 5, 2013
I’m going with Courtauld—so it will be interesting to compare their take with yours, mine and everyone else’s!!
Keith Greenough
July 5, 2013
Yes will be interesting to hear their views… When talking about Boucher’s paintings Diderot called them ‘… artificial and cosmeticised, fussy and trivial, mannered rather than noble, pretty but not beautiful, appealing to women [eek!], artists and other people with bad taste (especially the rich), a product of the compromised morality of the times…..’. He did not hold back!!
I found this article on Salgado by Julian Stallabrass on the Courtauld website..
vickiuvc
July 6, 2013
Thanks for that Keith—the article looks good and I’ll be sure to read it before I go.
Jill Willis
July 6, 2013
I went on the study visit to the Salgado exhibition last week (which, surprisingly, hasn’t yet been written up on weareoca) and I agree with all your concerns. I didn’t feel that the intention was to educate or raise awareness about the fragility of the planet and the need to prevent further damage. It was a collection of technically expert and often beautiful (as we would expect) images of dramatic landscapes, some equally dramatic wildlife and some people in remote, but not untouched, communities. Someone commented that it seemed to be a retirement project. We also discussed ethical concerns – not least the fact that Salgado and the NHM accepted sponsorship from the Brazilian mining company Vale, which has an appalling record of environmental damage and has displaced tens of thousands of indigenous people. The project involved Salgado and his team travelling several times to regions such as Antarctica, creating a pretty big carbon footprint, and I don’t believe the end justified the means. The images of people were questionable, too. I don’t mind him using a cloth background for some very powerful portraits, but I thought a portable studio lined with palm fronds as a setting for a group of people sitting/lying around was a step too far.One way and another, I felt rather cheated. Salgado’s previous work had a clear humanitarian message and an ethical stance which are not apparent in the Genesis project.
Keith Greenough
July 6, 2013
I am trying to reserve judgement but it seems that your experience has confirmed what i thought I might find….Jill, I received an email from you on my keithgreenoughphotography site a while ago. I replied to the email address and the message was returned. You had asked if I would be happy to comment on some photographs. I would be more than happy to do so but sadly my attempts to contact you came to nought…..by all means let me know if you would like to discuss anything….very best wishes. Keith
Jill Willis
July 6, 2013
Thanks Keith. I’d be really grateful if you could have a look at some pictures. I’ll try contacting you via your website again.