Born in 1944 in Brazil, Sebastião Salgado is a Pulitzer Prize winner and leading photojournalist, known for his captivating images of the natural world. The Royal Ontario Museum is fortunate enough to be displaying some of his most remarkable photos in a new exhibit entitled Genesis.
Over a span of eight years, Salgado traveled to 32 locations, documenting the strength of nature against the threat of industrialism. The ROM’s black and white collection features a combination of raw landscapes and the groups of people living there.
The exhibit is set in multiple rooms, with each devoted to a location in which the photos were taken. From the Amazon to the Canadian Arctic, Salgado has brought the wonders of the natural world to Toronto.
One of the exhibit’s first photos was taken in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Upon walking towards the piece, one observes a black landscape with various shades of grey toward the foreground. Amidst the darkness, white lights shimmer, forming an image that seems to resemble a city skyline. But on closer examination, the photo becomes something far more extraordinary: Salgado captures a group of Yacare Caimans, a reptile of the Crocodilia order, in the Pantanal wetlands. Despite its modern feel from afar, up close this photo depicts something unseen in any urban setting.
Just a few steps away from the Amazon section is a collection of photographs taken in the Galápagos Islands. Displayed here is perhaps the most striking piece of this exhibit: a photo of a large silver hand with thinly curved claws gripping the ground. This piece was unlike any other in the show; the metallic and rough skin was something so surreal, it looked man-made. Salgado’s description explains that the industrial-looking hand actually belonged to a marine iguana. This juxtaposition of nature and the urban can be seen throughout Genesis as the viewer observes extraordinary places untouched by man.
Salgado’s iguana was used in the Genesis advertisements across Toronto. Although its metallic claws are visible just by looking at the ROM from Bloor Street, one can only comprehend the beauty of the photographs up close.
The exhibit concludes with scenes from the Canadian Arctic. With its snowy mountains and Inuit tribes, these last photographs truly capture the Canadian experience. Gazing upon an icy river scene, one can imagine the daily struggles experienced by those who live in the Arctic.
Sebastião Salgado’s Genesis is more than a collection of photos; it is an experience of life before modernization.
