Born in Brazil in 1944, the famous photographer Sebastio Salgado uses his life's photography to show us a real world, in which human beings share trauma, hatred, war, genocide, famine, disease, Destroying nature without end, and even after the Rwanda genocide, he began to doubt human nature and whether humans could continue to exist on this planet. Fortunately, after returning to his hometown in Brazil, the power of nature healed the wounds of his soul, and he raised his arms and shouted for the power of nature. After all, hunman are just the salt of the earth.
In 1969, the young Sebastio Salgado left his homeland and came to Paris, where he found the calling of his life in photography, leaving the enviable economics job at the World Bank, betting Everything starts to chase its own mission. Between 1977 and 1984, he completed "Another America", which made him famous. After leaving America for many years, he set foot on this homeland for the first time. At that time, various social movements were going on in South America. Looking down on the real life of people on the American continent, from the liberation theology movement to the funeral of an early dead baby in Brazil, we spy on the world on the other side of the earth through his lens, and the world is what it should be.
Sebastio Salgado's work is highly infectious, black and white photographs that become silent weapons that go straight to the heart. From 1981 to 1994, he became a witness to the fate of mankind, full of concern for people, he focused on the famine in Ethiopia, the Gulf War in Kuwait, the Rwandan genocide, the Yugoslav civil war, and refugees around the world. Those frozen moments are not just a moment of eternity, they are more like an open door, welcoming us towards that eternity, hearing the cry of Ethiopians, touching the faces of ethnic minority tribes in Indonesia, and smelling Rwanda. The blood of corpses lying in the ground after the massacre. We may instinctively reject these horrific photos and believe that nature is inherently good, but the truth is that the evil he recorded with the camera is also part of human nature. He went to the darkest center of the world. After returning from shooting in Rwanda, he fell ill. The doctor could not detect the problem of physical function, but he knew that these pains had caused huge trauma to his soul.
Unable to control himself, Sebastio Salgado decided to return to Brazil, where he came from. Inherited the father's farm that only 0.5% of the rainforest-loving farm remained due to deforestation. After consulting with his lifelong lover and friend's wife, they decided to start planting trees to bring the land back to what it was when he was a child. The planting didn't go well at first, but with love for the land, it now has 2.5 million trees and is a national park in Brazil. The forest healed his wounds, and the fresh air touched his wounded heart. In this green, he picked up his camera again and turned on the creatures of the earth. It is no longer the theme of human beings, but all things that exist on this beautiful planet just like humans. For eight years he has been observing, understanding, he said: "I am part of nature, like a turtle, a tree, a pebble."
I think he is the healer of the earth, because his life has awakened more human beings, saw the origin of the world, and also awakened everyone's deep concern for the world. And China also has a similar ancient saying: "Do not do evil for small things, and do not do good for small things." If each of us is willing to care more about the world outside of ourselves, and give a little more kindness, I will I believe we can all be that healer.
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