Sebastião Salgado, “On Photography, including excerpts from ‘Other Americas: Workers, Terra, Migrations, and Genesis’”
Thursday, 25 April 2013, 1900 EST
Lesley University
Rabb Auditorium
The Boston Public Library
700 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
One of the great photographers of our time, Sebastião Salgado will present a selection of images from various bodies of work throughout his career. He was born in 1944 in Brazil and lives in Paris, France. He worked for the photo agencies Sygma, Gamma, and Magnum and then he and Lélia Wanick Salgado formed their own organization, Amazonas images, in 1994.
Salgado has travelled to over 100 countries for his photographic projects. His photographs have appeared in numerous publications and monographs, including An Uncertain Grace (1990), Workers (1993), and Migrations and Portraits (2000). Leading museums and galleries around the world have exhibited his work, such as the Musee de l’Elysee, Switzerland; National Gallery of Art, China; and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Spain. His photographs are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and the Centre Pompidou, Paris, among other major museums around the world.
Salgado’s most recent project, Genesis, will open at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada in the coming days. In it, Salgado presents what he describes as: “the unblemished face of nature and humanity… through a series of photographs depicting communities that continue to live according to their ancestral traditions and cultures.” He has been the recipient of many awards including the W. Eugene Smith Award for Humanitarian Photography, the World Press Photo Award, and the Photojournalist of the Year Award (ICP, USA).
Lesley University press release on Sebastião Salgado’s lecture:
Lesley University’s Strauch-Mosse Visiting Artist Lecture Series presents Sebastião Salgado
Preeminent contemporary photographer Sebastiao Salgado is noted for his social documentary photography of workers in less developed nations
Lesley University welcomes one of the great photographers of our time, Brazilian-born, Paris-based Sebastião Salgado, who will present from a selection of various bodies of work throughout his career on Thursday, April 25 at 7 p.m. as part of Lesley’s Strauch-Mosse Visiting Artist Lecture Series.
Free and open to the public, the lecture will be held in the Rabb Auditorium at the Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. Seating is limited, to register, please visit www.lesley.edu/Salgado.
Salgado is known for his expansive projects that strive to inform, and transform, the viewer. A photojournalist and social documentary photographer, Salgado often depicts the working poor in developing nations, providing a stunning humanist commentary on broad sociopolitical and economic themes.
His work, often described as a compassionate and hopeful representation of the dignity of human struggle, serves to increase awareness of the realities of the waning industrial age.
“For 40 years, Salgado has traveled throughout the world creating striking images that provide powerful insights into the human condition and the natural worlds we inhabit,” said Stan Trecker, Dean of The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University (AIB), which organized Salgado’s lecture. “From Siberia to the Namib desert to the oil wells of Kuwait and the jungles of the Amazon, Salgado’s photographic projects have demonstrated a deep respect for the people and the environments he encounters.”
During the Strauch-Mosse Lecture, Salgado will present a range of his projects including Other Americas, Workers, Terra, Migrations, and Genesis.
Salgado’s awards include the International Center of Photography’s Photographer of the Year, and the Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. Nine books of his photographs have been published, and his work has been exhibited and collected by major museums all over the world.
About Sebastião Salgado
Born on a cattle farm in Brazil, Salgado studied economics until his political resistance to Brazil’s right-wing government led him to Paris in 1969. He discovered the power of photography while dispatched to Rwanda as an economist, and soon became a member of the legendary Magnum photo cooperative. You can see his work at www.amazonasimages.com.
About the Strauch-Mosse Lecture Series
The Strauch-Mosse Visiting Artist Lecture Series, established through a $1 million gift by Lesley University Trustee Hans D. Strauch, enables Lesley to host locally, nationally, and internationally renowned artists for exhibitions lectures, promoting Lesley’s dedication to cultural and artistic literacy. Lesley’s students are engaged in the arts through undergraduate and Master of Fine Arts Programs at Lesley’s Art Institute of Boston (AIB), and through the university’s Master of Education programs in the arts. and undergraduate and graduate programs in Expressive Therapies.
AIB offers two Master of Fine Arts programs. enrolls 500 students annually in Bachelor of Fine Arts Programs in Fine Arts. Photography. Illustration. Animation. Art History and Design. and conducts classes for high school students and adult learners.