Art & the Shaping of Identity

“Perhaps that is where our reflection should begin: that our survival is threatened….We hold the key to humanity’s future, but for that we must understand the present. These photographs show part of this present. We cannot afford to look away.”

–Sebastiao Salgado, Paris, July 1999.[i]

Globalization and urbanization are one of the biggest twentieth century concerns possessing both negative and positive effects on humanity. On the one hand, as urbanization takes hold it provides new hope with the promise of new jobs and industry. As cities prosper, people migrate towards these new opportunities, bringing in both consumers and laborers, which feed the economic circle.  At the same time however, this same urbanization and its capitalist logic is also failing mankind and the environment.  As populations expand and spread, we tend to ignore its negative consequences–destruction of the environment and the exploitation of the poor. Sebastiao Salgado wants his audiences to begin taking responsibility for these consequences.

A Brazilian born photojournalist now based in France, Salgado began his career as an agricultural economist and was not fully aware of world poverty and injustices until he worked for the International Coffee Organization.[ii] That was when he stepped foot into Africa for the first time and what he saw made him the photojournalist he is today – an activist and a representative of UNICEF.[iii]

Salgado began his photojournalism career in 1973. He has, with the help of his wife, composed several books filled with photographs from the different countries he has gone to. Salgado’s photographs are known to present the dark side of humanity, depicting the injustices of war and urbanization. Photographing displaced persons who are forced to either flee from death, or flee for other hopes of living, Salgado conveys a strong message to the public. This message is that many of the problems present in this world are a result of human hunger for power and wealth. All sources of wealth in many successful cities dating from the past to the present trace back to the earth and the resources it provides. Because these resources are limited, the distribution has been skewed and some communities like that depicted in the photograph, Drinking water pipeline, Bombay, India, 1995, are unable to have access to or benefit from these resources. This common sociopolitical dilemma has caused Salgado to resurface the subject and throw it back to the face of the world again.

Taking advantage of the aesthetic effect of black and white photographs, Salgado forces the viewer to consider the message, not just the picture. Black and white photos take away the human perception of colors, hues, brightness, and other details that may alter the message. The visual receptors in our eyes are able to relax a bit and focus more on details that would have been masked by colors. For example, in this picture of a shanty town in Bombay, India viewers are able to notice the woman more clearly. The dark and large pipeline contrasts in comparison to her small figure. Rather than focusing on the color of her clothing and the jewels on her face, the viewer sees her deep dark eyes and hard face. Keeping the images on a grayscale can remove any predetermined opinions that may be conceived at a glance. The viewers are not distracted by color of skin, clothing, or the land, but more on the emotion that is conveyed.

In this photograph of a shanty town in Bombay, India, a large water pipeline bisects the town, creating a line of vision the viewer can’t help but follow. But on either side of this pipeline and makeshift footpath, the landscape hides underneath layers of poorly constructed homes in this poverty stricken neighborhood. The landscape is so obscured that the only sign of vegetation is a tree hidden behind towers of homes built from scraps. Paths constructed from debris, and other abnormal object, present a passageway through this landscape for the habitants to walk on – this includes the large pipeline slithering through the area. The drinking water pipeline provides clean drinking water to the more prosperous area of the city and the irony of it all is that, while this pipeline brings clean water to the prosperous, the people of this shantytown can’t even find clean drinking water for themselves.

Ultimately, this photograph displays the injustices of sociopolitical decisions. As cities grow and prosper, technology advances and new method of manufacture decrease human labor, which would, in theory, improve everyone’s quality of life. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. People begin to lose jobs and fall into financial turmoil. Families who fall into hard times end up in places like shantytowns.  Resources for living, such as water, become difficult to attain as governments concern focus primarily on improving their economy.[iv] Although water is a source from nature and should be available and accessible by all, it is difficult to access a clean and usable portion of it.

Rich land for agriculture, clean water for drinking, and areas where land can remain “untouched” are decreasing as deforestation and desertification grows. Droughts occur more frequently and since fresh, clean water is at minimum, policies for distributing this necessary element of life must be placed. Unfortunately, this distribution is not always equal and this is the kind of thing Salgado hopes to convey.[v]  The root of poverty lies in the unequal distribution of many of earth’s richness and the scarcity of these riches makes it difficult to provide the growing population of the world.

H.E.