Sebastião Salgado

Images from a Lifetime with the World in Focus

Sebastião Salgado, with his intense images, grabs the viewer's conscience by the shirt. "The man in the countryside is paid a negative price for his work. He subsidises those who buy his products, paying with his dignity, his education, and his health", charges the Brazilian photographer. The dominant production models imposed by the large corporations, based on agribusiness, serves the sole purpose of generating income to sustain a decaying economic system, he says.

At the peak of his 30-year career, Salgado continues to move the world by portraying in his captivating images the human misery caused by the negative effects of globalisation.

And the WSF multitude is treating the groundbreaking Salgado like a pop star.

At least 2,000 people, mostly on the young side, crowded into a PUC auditorium as Salgado, 59, poured millions of words over the audience--in the form of images. Dramatic scenes depicting the effects of globalisation on the poor of Latin America, Asia, and Africa. His lens reveals the silent suffering of millions of anonymous people. His photos cry for justice.

The young audience, which might look upon his pictures as historical documents, was surprised with the amount of misery that humankind is capable of imparting. The pictures Salgado shared are part of his 1990s work titled "Exodus". They show the decay of the family institution, the escape from war, and the abandonment of the countryside. They portray absurd situations, like the fact that in urban slums people can have a better life than in their original homes.

"Agribusiness is not sustainable, it is just another form of concentrating income", says the indignant photographer. "I saw it, I've been at those places", he confirms. In his testimony, Salgado points out that the large monoculture exists only in developing countries and in the United States, where the model came from. "France, Italy, and Germany, for example, are countries with a large and diversified agricultural production, and they ban this model from their lands", he stated. He is an absolute advocate of family farming, and of diversified food production on smaller parcels of land, as occurs in several regions of southern Brazil.

When Salgado speaks, the audience hears not only the voice of an award-winning photojournalist, but also of an economist with a PhD from France. He is a traveller who spent years visiting coffee plantations around the world, especially in Africa. His critical vision is based in a solid formal and personal knowledge.

Regarding Africa, Salgado says in an emotional tone that humankind has no right to abandon that continent to its own luck after having exploited it. "It is a lie to say that African wars are tribal wars. They are economic wars, for the control of its strategic and very valuable mineral resources," he says.

People left after Salgado's Saturday testimonial silenced by indignation, but perhaps also more eager to share and preserve what they have witnessed. If a single image is worth a thousand words, Sebastião Salgado has produced an immense library about the infinite human capacity for creating misery, destruction, and pain.