The Spectre of Hope: With Sebastiäo Salgado and
John Berger
Directed by Paul Carlin, Produced by Paula Jalfon, Colin MacCabe and
Adam Simon
First Run/Icarus Films
US VHS, 52 minutes / Color
Price: $390
Migrations
By Sebastiäo Salgado
Aperture, 2000
432 pages
ISBN: 0893818917
Price: $70.00
The Children: Refugees and Migrants
By Sebastiäo Salgado and Lelia Wanick Salgado (Ed.)
Aperture, 2000
112 pages
ISBN: 0893818941
Price: $45.00
Reviewed by Amy Ione
PO Box 12748,
Berkeley,
CA USA 94712-3748
ione@diatrope.com
Today there are over 100 million international migrants, a number that
has doubled in the span of a decade. The Spectre of Hope video and the
Migrations and The Children: Refugees and Migrants photographic collections
introduce us to some of these people. Through Sebastiäo Salgado's
masterly photographs we meet peasants, migrant workers, refugees, and
children from 43 countries, all of whom were displaced when their lives
were touched by globalization. The video tells us that few are responsible
for their situations and they do not comprehend how their lives came
to the present state. Many see their lives as in transition and perceive
this as a temporary state. Understandably, they hope to return to the
stable lives they knew before becoming displaced. Comprehension is not
an easy task for the viewer of the images either. Looking at the faces
and circumstances from my armchair in Berkeley, USA, it is difficult
to perceive how they will once again find 'normal' lives and livelihoods.
It is not difficult, however, to feel the plight of their lives.
The Spectre of Hope offers a larger prospective on the collections.
Through a dialogue between the photographer Sebastiäo Salgado's
and the art critic John Berger we hear how migration has altered the
lives of those we see in the stills as they move across the screen.
Salgado's most noteworthy achievement is his ability to remind us that
visual imagery changes an abstract idea into an emotional explanation,
capable of piercing through to the heart of what life is. Black and
white photographs accentuate the emotional nature of the presentation
and aid Salgado in keeping the focus on the glimpse of globalization
he offers. Gathered over six years and in countries ranging across Africa,
Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, the photojournalistic collection
paints a portrait that includes Rwanda, Mexico, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo,
Salgado's native Brazil, and elsewhere. When the photographer and the
art critic speak about this massive project, in Berger's home in the
Swiss Alps, we hear the passion Salgado brought to the making of these
images. His words underscore the degree to which he fulfilled his goals
of showing the world those who have not benefited from globalization,
(which Berger says actually enhances the lives of only one in five on
the planet). During their dialogue Berger correctly exclaims that one
feels the word YES in Salgado's vision. This is not a yes of approval,
but one that recognizes these heart-wrenching situations exist. This
photographer's capacity to expose a too often obscured side of global
reality helps provoke those who look at the pictures to move beyond
indifference. Through the still images and the video we feel the hope
of these people from all over the world who are trying to again find
a stable position in life, and we add our own hope to it.
Salgado unparalleled perspective on globalization is strongly rooted
in his own history. Born on a farm in the rural state of Minas Gerais
in Brazil, he moved to a small town at the age of five, and eventually
trained as an economist. Realizing that economic statistics and dry
written reports did little to convey the plight of real people, he began
to tell their stories with his camera. He now does this with such mastery
that it is impossible to verbally convey the degree to which a single
photograph can juxtapose the uprooted, the impoverished, the helpless
with the haunting beauty and dignity of people who seem very much alive
as they look at us through the prints. Salgado reveals that many of
those recorded allowed him to photograph them because they wanted to
make their predicament known to others. When he explained that his purpose
was to introduce their living situations to people in distant lands,
they stood before the camera and addressed it as if it were a microphone.
Each photograph captures the dignity of those living face-to-face with
war, famine and poverty. The children are the most memorable. Individual
expressions are enhanced by the story Salgado tells about how he came
to take their pictures. The children, he explains, were fascinated by
this white man toting a Leica. Invariably they would come up to him,
wanting attention, wanting to see the camera, and wanting him to take
a picture. Finally he successfully told them that he would take a picture
of each of them if they would let him get on with his work. This resulted
in the book called The Children: Refugees and Migrants. As Berger declares,
each seems to say, "I exist" while also managing to introduce
a unique individual to those of us who now see them from afar.
It is tempting to say that the video, with its music and editing, losses
something due to the way the 'script' influences how we see the work.
Similarly, it is tempting to say that the printed publication allows
one to appreciate the artistry of the images, the complexity of the
compositions, and Salgado's uncanny ability to make the people real.
Both of these comments, while holding a partial truth, would fail to
convey how effective Salgado's work is in whatever form is used to present
it. Anyone who cares about the state of our world and the populations
that have not benefited from globalization definitely needs to engage
with Salgado's photographs. The video is an excellent introduction to
both Migrations and The Children series. It would be particularly effective
in a cultural studies classroom given the way John Berger's comments,
as well as Sebastiäo Salgado's explanations, expand the story the
pictures tell. The Spectre of Hope visually conveys how technology,
industry, and a global economy have transformed people's lives, often
making life harder. Still the video doesn't provide the kind of silence
and prolonged viewing that the books offer. Leafing through the books
one can spend more time with each picture and read the commentary Salgado
includes as well. The words explain who or what we see, adding some
dimension to each image and situation.
Overall, Sebastiäo Salgado's photographs aid us in re-thinking
how we live, and how we coexist in a global society. His photojournalistic
images reach far beyond the sensationalism of television and other forms
of mass media. Finally, The Spectre of Hope, Migrations and The Children:
Refugees and Migrants remind us of the degree to which photography and
video have altered communication about our world. Prior to the invention
of the camera, these kinds of images could only be rendered using words
or, perhaps, line drawings. As a result, the circumstances of normal
people were usually not exposed. Line drawings took time and only a
major event would be recorded in a painting. Now our tools allow us
to we see more and expose invisible populations to a greater degree.
The video and the book collections all introduce us to global migration
and each impels the viewer to add his or her hope to the hope we see
in the many faces Salgado brings into our lives.