In Wang Renping's preface to Li Zhongying's book "Comprehensive Skills in Parent-Child Relationship", Wang has a sentence describing Li: "I remember that when I expressed my gratitude, a sentence from Teacher Li Zhongying deeply moved me, he said: 'My mission is to be a messenger, to send useful knowledge to those who should receive it. You have already used Weibo to do the same thing, and you are a fellow man.' This sentence shows the humility, indifference, and more of a master. It shows his deep sense of responsibility and mission.”
Mission, um, is the word.
Perhaps, master figures have a sense of mission from the heart, a responsibility that humbles them, gives them courage, and shows their direction. The documentary "The Salt of the Earth" records a photographer who deeply feels the breadth of heaven and earth, the beauty of nature, humanistic care, compassion for the heavens and people, and the world. He is Sebastian Salgado.
I thought photographers were all about photography skills, but he wasn't. He said he never thought about artistic creation when taking pictures. If anyone thinks some of his pictures are artistic, "that's their business". "Every photographer has a different point of view," he says, and he likes to shoot things that touch the heart. His works are the crystallization of time. "Another America" has been filmed for 8 years, "Genesis" has been filmed for 8 years, as well as "Exodus", "Laborer - The Image of the Dying Industrial Age", etc. Each work is a step by step, a day Accumulated results of an inch of time.
At first, he gave up the favorable treatment of economics and became a humanities photographer. He took portraits, "The moment you see the photo, you can see the whole life.
He went to a gold mine in Brazil. "Though the subjects were ragged and even naked, they still had human dignity. I felt that there was too much injustice in our world. My conscience drove me to photograph them, To get people's attention." He felt his conscience there. "He photographed Ethiopian refugees, he photographed the Rwandan genocide, those pictures of genocide and corpses, and also pictures of newborn babies and refugees' lives. "Our history is the history of war." He photographed laborers all over the world. , he pays attention to those who rely on physical strength for a living and may be overwhelmed by the tide of history, he travels through steel mills in Ukraine, sugar cane fields in Cuba, tea plantations in Rwanda, tin mines in Bolivia, coal mines in India, gold mines in Brazil, bicycles in China Factory... just to take pictures of every action in history.
He succeeded in attracting attention, both to the humanitarianism he was concerned with, and to himself. He then gave up his career as a humanities photographer to become a landscape photographer.
Hence "Genesis". "Genesis" shoots the original appearance of the world. The documentary said, "After seeing so much destruction, he is more optimistic about the earth." I saw a description of the content of this heavyweight work on the Internet: ""Genesis" What's in it? From the volcanoes and animal species of the Galapagos, to penguins, sea lions, whales, cormorants in the Antarctic and South Atlantic, to crocodiles and jaguars in Brazil, to lions, leopards and elephants in Africa; from the Amazon From isolated tribes in the depths of the jungle, Sudanese farmers, to the Korowai people still living in the Stone Age in West Papua, to the Nenets herders and their reindeer in the Arctic Circle... In short, beyond the boundaries of your imagination, People and things of nature.” I am really curious, and I am used to seeing famine, war, fearful eyes, jagged bones, and sluggish expressions, whether these revealing ugly sins are not enough to arouse people’s yearning for a better world, so let me He turned to recording the breathtaking scenery, isn't beauty more touching than evil? He said that "Genesis" was his "love letter to the earth", was it "a pleading letter to the earth" before that?
Later, he slowed down as a photographer and became a forest planter.
When he was old, he returned to Brazil and worked on a major project on his father's farm to restore the desolate land there to a forest like when he was born. 2.5 million trees are to be planted there. Is it a fool's dream? he made it. He described his relationship with this land like this: We form a cycle of this land, in this cycle, we have lived our lives, we have lived here again, this land has been telling our life, it Witnessing my childhood, accompanying my old age, and when I die, the land will return to what it was when I was born, the cycle is complete, and this is the story of my life. "
He was a big self, a philanthropist, and his thoughts were simple: "The most important thing is to understand: I am part of nature, like a turtle, a tree, a pebble." If we all have this If you understand, you will understand that the carbon dioxide we exhale may melt a piece of ice in the Arctic, and the oxygen we inhale may come from a tree in the Amazon forest. We are all part of the earth. Move the whole body.
It is worth noting that his lover is also a very insightful person. She said: "When I first said, let's plant a forest, what I thought was, I plant a seed, and a tree grows, a small plant, however, it is not a small plant, and It is a million plants, not only here, but the whole area will be planted later, what a great idea, growth and reproduction, this is not an individual's idea, but everyone's idea."
His first camera was bought by his wife, and his first photo was taken of his wife. This "click" started his career as a photographer, and he later became a famous master. When he was old, when he returned to his hometown, it was his wife who said, "Let's plant a forest." Such a flash of inspiration started his career as a tree planter, and he really restored an entire forest later. His wife is lucky to meet a man who can do anything, but maybe even luckier he met a man who inspires him, gives him support, can help him in his career and take care of his life woman. Or, they are both lucky and hardworking, and they have met each other who worked together while achieving their own achievements.
This person interprets his sense of mission with his life. He loves the world and uses all his strength to pay attention to those in need, to uncover the veil of the unseen beauty of the earth, and to heal the ecologically destroyed. Scars of the land. He listened to his inner voice at any time, to explore, to discover, to record. He never stopped moving forward because of family, illness, and fatigue. He never stopped in the comfort zone because of greed for wealth, education, and fame. He didn't make a career plan for himself, but I saw a perfect career path, life path, every turn is a more beautiful scenery. I hope that when I look back on my life, it can be so wonderful, real, and meaningful.
I don't know why this documentary is called "The Salt of the Earth", but I always thought it was called "Earth Eye". I feel that he is the conscience of mankind, the eye of the earth, and through his lens let us touch To our hearts, to perceive the lives of others, to touch the pulse of the earth. Tribute to him.
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