Sebasti�o Salgado. Genesis

"In GENESIS, my camera allowed nature to speak to me. And it was my privilege to listen." --Sebasti�o Salgado

On a very fortuitous day in 1970, 26-year-old Sebasti�o Salgado held a camera for the first time. When he looked through the viewfinder, he experienced a revelation: suddenly life made sense. From that day onward--though it took years of hard work before he had the experience to earn his living as a photographer--the camera became his tool for interacting with the world. Salgado, who "always preferred the chiaroscuro palette of black-and-white images," shot very little color in his early career before giving it up completely.

Raised on a farm in Brazil, Salgado possessed a deep love and respect for nature; he was also particularly sensitive to the ways in which human beings are affected by their often devastating socio-economic conditions. Of the myriad works Salgado has produced in his acclaimed career, three long-term projects stand out: Workers (1993), documenting the vanishing way of life of manual laborers across the world; Migrations (2000), a tribute to mass migration driven by hunger, natural disasters, environmental degradation and demographic pressure; and this new opus, GENESIS, the result of an epic eight-year expedition to rediscover the mountains, deserts and oceans, the animals and peoples that have so far escaped the imprint of modern society--the land and life of a still-pristine planet. "Some 46% of the planet is still as it was in the time of genesis," Salgado reminds us. "We must preserve what exists." The GENESIS project, along with the Salgados' Instituto Terra, are dedicated to showing the beauty of our planet, reversing the damage done to it, and preserving it for the future.

Over 30 trips--traveled by foot, light aircraft, seagoing vessels, canoes, and even balloons, through extreme heat and cold and in sometimes dangerous conditions--Salgado created a collection of images showing us nature, animals, and indigenous peoples in breathtaking beauty. Mastering the monochrome with an extreme deftness to rival the virtuoso Ansel Adams, Salgado brings black-and-white photography to a new dimension; the tonal variations in his works, the contrasts of light and dark, recall the works of Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Georges de La Tour.

What does one discover in GENESIS? The animal species and volcanoes of the Gal�pagos; penguins, sea lions, cormorants, and whales of the Antarctic and South Atlantic; Brazilian alligators and jaguars; African lions, leopards, and elephants; the isolated Zo'� tribe deep in the Amazon jungle; the Stone Age Korowai people of West Papua; nomadic Dinka cattle farmers in Sudan; Nenet nomads and their reindeer herds in the Arctic Circle; Mentawai jungle communities on islands west of Sumatra; the icebergs of the Antarctic; the volcanoes of Central Africa and the Kamchatka Peninsula; Saharan deserts; the Negro and Juru� rivers in the Amazon; the ravines of the Grand Canyon; the glaciers of Alaska... and beyond. Having dedicated so much time, energy, and passion to the making of this work, Salgado calls GENESIS "my love letter to the planet."

Whereas the limited Collector's Edition is conceived like a large-format portfolio that meanders across the planet, this unlimited book presents a selection of photographs arranged in five chapters geographically: Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Northern Spaces, Amazonia, and Pantanal. Each in its own way, this book and the Collector's Edition--both edited and designed by L�lia Wanick Salgado--pay homage to Salgado's triumphant and unparalleled GENESIS project.

Sebasti�o Salgado's haunting black-and-white photographs from the GENESIS project record landscapes and people unchanged in the devastating onslaught of modern society and development. Taken over the course of an epic eight-year expedition, the images are divided into five broad geographic chapters: Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Northern...
L�lia Wanick Salgado studied architecture and urban planning in Paris. Her interest in photography started in 1970. In the 1980s, she began to conceive and design the majority of Sebasti�o Salgado's photography books and all of the exhibitions of his work. Since 1994, L�lia Wanick Salgado has been the director of Amazonas Images (until 2017) and their Paris studio.
Sebasti�o Salgado began his career as a professional photographer in Paris in 1973 and subsequently worked with the photo agencies Sygma, Gamma, and Magnum Photos. In 1994, he and his wife L�lia Wanick Salgado created Amazonas Images, which is today their studio, and exclusively handles his work. Salgado's photographic projects have been featured in many exhibitions as well as books, including Sahel. L'Homme en d�tresse (1986), Other Americas (1986), Workers (1993), Terra (1997), Migrations (2000), The Children (2000), Africa (2007), Genesis (2013), The Scent of a Dream (2015), Kuwait. A Desert on Fire (2016), and Gold (2019).
"...a tribute to the diversity of planet earth."-- "The Wall Street Journal"
"A true book for the ages."-- "TIME"
"GENESIS honors its biblical antecedent... there could be no more powerful reminder of all that we stand to lose."-- "The New York Times"
"GENESIS will further cement Salgado's reputation as one if the most significant photographers of his age."-- "The Daily Telegraph"
"GENESIS... a biblical title that suits the majesty of his subjects and offers the work as a beautifully articulated prayer for preservation and respect."-- "The Los Angeles Times"
"Salgado delivers another masterpiece."-- "The Independent"