Genesis, an exhibit featuring the photography of Sebastio Salgado, has the purpose of depicting the beauty of pure nature. The abstract of the exhibit states it as a “journey to the landscapes, seascapes, animals and peoples that have so far escaped the long reach of today’s world.” His exhibit takes you around the world with him as if you had been there. It captured majestic landscapes with purple mountains reaching into the sky, pristine lakes, and untouched snow laden lands. There had been one clear absence, industrialized societies. Although humans were present in many of the photos, they had lived in harmony in nature. They had not caused massive deforestation or exploited natural resources, but instead lived as hunters and gatherers. Our group had liked the photos of pure landscapes more but the pictures with these “primitive” societies had posed a giant question to us. Are these people less expendable than we are in our society? If one of us dies, there are millions more to take our place due to the size of the population our lifestyle supports, but if one of them dies, they lose a hunter, a child-bearer, a midwife, or a craftsman. Their groups are so small that every man and woman is more important to their society.
The overall exhibit had been very easy to follow along. Each specific part of the exhibit focuses on a different region in the world. From the frigid regions of the Antarctic to the tropical regions of South America, you see the animals, landscapes and peoples of all the areas. Each photo from each section was placed on a color that corresponded to that section to keep you from becoming overwhelmed. Some photographs even came with audio-tours to further describe the picture beyond the brief description that came with it.
When our group had seen some of the humans that lived in the societies mentioned above, we had encountered major culture shocks, particularly those that lived in Africa. We had seen people with large lip plates and scarification all over their bodies. Although it does not fully make sense to us, these traditions probably have very long cultural roots. Although not in the exhibit, we came to think about one tribe in Africa that had required women to wear neck braces from the time that they enter puberty. The reason they started doing this, however, had been because men from another tribe would invade and take their tribe’s women and so in order to prevent this, they began to make the women wear the neck braces so that they would only be beautiful to the women of their tribe. Although it does not fully explain to us, that live in a “civilized” society, why exactly they would still start the tradition, it does not make them any less human. This was apparent in one photograph of a boy, playing with a necklace around his neck. He was just like any other boy his age, finding joy and entertainment in some of the most basic things. He had that playful spirit like what we had when we were children.
There had only been one problem with the exhibit that our group found. It had not been with the photographs themselves but with the way they had been displayed. The lighting in the room and the frames that the photos were displayed in made a very bad glare on some photos. Although the problem was very minimal, we felt that it took slightly away from the exhibit.
Kevin, Adrian, Joshua
