PHOTO:Genesis by Sebastião Salgado

 

 “Genesis is a quest for the world as it was, as it was formed, as it evolved, as it existed for millennia before modern life accelerated and began distancing us from the very essence of our being. It is testimony that our planet still harbors vast and remote regions where nature reigns in silent and pristine majesty.” -Lélia Wanick Salgado.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: ICP Archive

Salgado’s quest to capture nature in its original state began in 2004, for 8 years during his travels across the globe, visited 32 countries; he documented arctic and desert landscapes, tropical rainforests, marine and other wildlife, and communities still living according to ancestral traditions. There are about five sections across which these photographs have been spanned out: Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Amazonia and Pantanal, and Northern Spaces. Genesis draws together more than 200 spectacular black-and-white photographs of the earth in the way it must have originated and the way its vast undiscovered stretches have remained untouched. It asks us, the humans, to question our view of this world and our relationship with this fragile planet that is powerful enough to create, sustain as well as destroy; but it is equally powerless when stood in front of the extents to which the ignorant and self-destructive human instincts have accelerated.