Salt of the Earth -- Film Review
Salt of the Earth
Directed
by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
This documents the life and work of Brazilian photographer
Sebastião
Salgado. Salgado was one of my own
photography teacher's favorites and I went to see an early exhibit of his in
San Francisco, probably around 1990, of South American Indians. I remember being impressed by the quality of
his prints and his compositions. This
film confirmed the correctness of that early impression and showed how much
Salgado has developed in the intervening years to the point where I would call
him one of the greatest photographers of all time. He belongs in the company of Adams, Weston,
Steichen, Steiglitz, Cartier-Bresson, Evans, Frank, Strand, Maier, and Mapplethorpe
-- although Mapplethorpe was mostly a studio photographer, he had the same eye
for quality, composition, and human sensitivity. Salgado is the very top level
of photography. Whether he is
photographing landscapes, portraits, refugee camps, dead bodies, burning oil
wells, portraits, or his wife, he is always an artist. He is always aware of composing the image for
the maximum aesthetic power and emotive effect.
His mastery of light and how to use light in a photographic composition
is equal to or beyond anyone's. The film
did not say whether he makes his own prints, but I was able to find out from an
excellent interview by photographer Anthony Friedkin with Salgado's gallery
dealer Peter Fetterman, that Salgado works with several printers, at least in
his later years, and he is very hands on in supervising them, going over
contact sheets himself with a loupe, and directing the darkroom work in
creating the prints. The interview with
Peter Fetterman is lengthy and excellent and I highly recommend it.1
Salgado went through an interesting evolution in his work
and within himself that the film presents to great effect. In his early years he documented the plight of
the poor and the downtrodden. He
photographed native peoples, workers, refugees.
He traveled to war zones, famines, refugee camps, burning oil wells in
Kuwait, Africa, Rwanda. He was
interested in destruction, genocide, starvation, human brutality, indifference,
and suffering. After decades of
immersing himself in the abyss of human cruelty and suffering he came to the
conclusion that "we are a terrible species." The most destructive and pathological that
evolution has produced. The darkness
within human capability is unfathomable and horrifying.
And then there was a change, a
turnaround. Since about 2004 he has been
documenting the beauty and renewal of the earth. He discovered that there is as much going on
in the world that is good as there is evil.
And so his recent work, called Genesis,
is a compendium of magnificent landscapes from around the world, especially
Siberia, Antarctica, the Galapagos Islands, and Africa, coupled with the human
interest photos of which he is a master. This inner transformation, from being preoccupied with destruction and
brutality to growth and renewal, expressed outwardly in his photographic
work, is one of the most interesting aspects of the film and of Salgado's
life.
In a world where everyone is a photographer and more pictures
are being taken of everything than can ever be imagined or ingested, Salgado
stands out as one at the very pinnacle of quality and substance. This film is a beautifully made presentation
of his life and work and I wholeheartedly recommended it with high
accolades.
1. Interview with
Peter Fetterman by Anthony Friedkin.
September 13, 2013. http://www.samys.com/blog?action=viewBlog&blogID=-103189848642139966&dest=/pg/jsp/community/printblog.jsp