The Bookshelf #11 - Sebastião Salgado - Genesis
Genesis
Sebastião Salgado
Published by Taschen
Available on Amazon from £25.00
I came across Genesis by Sebastião Salgado in a YouTube video about photography books and added it straight to my Amazon Wishlist.
This is huge black and white, documentary and landscape photography project which took Salgado over 8 years to complete, and you’ll understand why every year was worth it when you pick it up and look inside. He spent this time visiting some of the remotest places on the planet, and photographing some of the remotest least known communities in history. Some of the portraits are really striking. It is, as the cover note says, about documenting some of the parts of the world that remain untouched by modern society.
Salgado himself has said that this book is his love letter to the planet, and it is easy to see why. tThe book explores the real diversity of our planet, not just in terms of humanity, but diversity of place, species and space.
I have looked at and read a lot of photo books, and this is one that has a really high proportion of images that make you stop and look. Nothing in here feels like it is a “throwaway” or “filler”. It is packed full of truly stunning photography.
A key idea behind Genesis is that nature and humanity are deeply connected. Salgado includes animals, landscapes and people who continue to live according to older traditions, presenting them as part of a wider story about survival, balance and respect for the Earth.
The project is partly a celebration of the natural world and partly an environmental warning. Rather than focusing on destruction directly, Salgado shows the beauty, scale and dignity of the planet, suggesting that these places are worth protecting. The images often feel dramatic and almost timeless, using strong contrast, rich texture and careful composition.
This is a hefty book, but if I had one criticism of this book, it would be that it’s probably a bit smaller than I would like - some of these images deserve to be seen much larger than they are presented in here. I know I said one, but I am also going to call out the binding on this one - it’s a thick book (almost an inch and a half) and because so much is packed into it, some of the images get lost in the binding so I don’t feel like you get to fully appreciate them because part of them is missing.
All things considered, I think this is a great book, the images are fantastic, dramatic and unique and this for me means that it earns a place on the shelf!
You can pick your copy up on Amazon for £25.00 by clicking here or by clicking on any of the other links on this page.
Check out my other book shelf articles by clicking the links below:
