Genesis is a stunning range of truly inspiring images

The impressive black and white prints on the gallery walls symbolize Sebastião Salgado’s passionate desire to show the world the threatened landscapes, imperiled creatures, endangered seascapes and those people who are bereft of the advancements of todays’ world to make us realize the huge difference between our and their standards of living.

As I looked at the photos to find one that appeals the most to me, I reached the part of the gallery where the photo portraits of various tribal people were displayed and all of them seemed objectifying to me. Those photo portraits showed the non-western tribal ornaments like lip plates and cheeks rubbed with ash of cow dung. One of the photo portraits really captured my attention which was the portrait of an old man with a strange gaze at the ground. The description of the photo said:

“Portrait of a man at a cattle camp at Kei. The Dinka and their animals are covered with ash from burned cow dung to sterilize the skin against insects and parasites. Southern Sudan, 2006”

Looking at the portrait, I did not just see the face of a tribal man but I felt like I saw the face of sheer despondency and despair. After some research, I learnt that Dinka people are ethnic group living in South Sudan and they live in extreme poverty. This particular portrait of a Dinka showed that he had rubbed white ash from burnt cow dung to protect himself and his animals from infections and parasites. He probably relies for his entire family’s livelihood on his animals and therefore, he is always concerned about them as losing any of them might mean skipping meals by his family for a few days. This makes us realize that Dinka people in Africa have never been exposed to the facilities available to people in the developed countries and people like us take all of these facilities for granted. The non-availability of basic medical supplies to Dinka people shows a huge contrast between third world countries like Africa and the developed countries like U.S. Although I don’t know about his sufferings, his teary eyes and wrinkly face illustrate his intense pain and perturbation.

Salgado’s Genesis is amazing and his photo portraits are inspirational and calling them mere photos would be an understatement because each one of them is a story in itself that asks us to pause and think.