On February 8, 1944 Sebastião Salgado was born into a world that was at war, and would remain at war for long periods of his life. Sebastião began his professional career studying economics, however this did not last long once he discovered his passion for photography. After earning his masters degree in economics he began traveling to Africa for his employer where he started taking photographs. By 1973 Sebastião had made the complete switch to professional photography, began working for an agency out of France, and has been taking pictures ever since. Sebastião has taken photos from across the globe and they have become world famous.
Susan Sontag’s “Regarding the Pain of Others” is an extremely powerful essay that takes numerous different perspectives on photography. The perspective I found to be the most fascinating was her one on how by making the hardships of others more universal through photography, people tend to care more. Sontag phrased this perspective perfectly in one short sentence, “Making suffering loom larger, by globalizing it, may spur people to feel they ought to “care” more” (Sontag 259). After taking this perspective and looking at some of Salgado’s work, I found myself relating to many of the photographs due to my past experiences, new thoughts were provoked, and I genuinely wanted to educate myself about the photographs. Salgado’s images and Sontag’s perspective causes viewers to feel a call to action to help others and become more involved.
1. http://www.adammarelliphoto.com/2011/01/sebastiaosalgadoleicafredritchin/
The photograph above1 was taken by Sebastião in 1986 and displays the Serra Pelada goldmines in his home country Brazil. At first glance there is a lot of activity going on in this photograph. Although this picture was not taken during a time of war, there is clearly a conflict taking place. When I first saw this photograph, I did not know anything about it, yet the nature of it provoked a lot of emotion and questions from me. I first thought the workers in the picture were slaves or prisoners of some sort, but after some research I discovered they were gold miners. And the soldier in the photograph is a member of the Brazilian military who was sent there to take over operations of the mining so the workers were not exploited. The picture makes it look like the military person is trying to hurt or harass the worker, which is actually the opposite of what he was sent there to do. Looking more closely at the man’s face who the soldier is pointing his gun at, the viewer can tell that he is actually quite young. His hair is rather mangy, and his eyebrows are torqued in a way that displays his discontent. The man’s neck muscles are stressed, suggesting that he is projecting his voice at the soldier. By looking more closely at this image, the viewer gets a better sense of the environment and how tense the situation is.
Photographs of small parts of an event can misrepresent the event, and Susan Sontag supported this statement, “This remembering through photographs eclipses other forms of understanding, and remembering” (263). Even though this particular photograph may not accurately portray the militaries actions at this gold mine, it does show the disgruntled workers and their conditions. If a story had been sent worldwide reporting that the gold miners here were being mistreated and had poor working conditions, it most likely would not have had the same effect as a photo. But because Salgado captured this photo, people are getting a visual image of the workers, their tattered clothes, and intense conflicts with soldiers. By providing a visual element, it makes viewers feel more obligated to educate themselves on the situation.
This image1 brought up past thoughts about how downward an event can go when the military becomes involved, but made me think of how pictures can misrepresent events. For instance during the Vietnam War, the US military continually raised the amount of troops and firepower it was putting into the war despite public protests. The heightened military presence increased the number of casualties, both civilian and military alike, for both sides. Yet the US government was reporting casualties to be lower than they actually were to prevent the antiwar movement from growing stronger. However this strategy backfired, especially when images of fallen US soldiers spread like wild fire across the media. People reacted much more strongly to a graphic photograph of an unknown US soldier than to a reported number. However, what arguably provoked the most protests and emotions was when images of deceased children and elderly hit the press. Sontag mentioned a different photographer than Salgado, but his photographs were globalized as well and created this same feeling of responsibility:
Like the pictures from the Vietnam War, such as Ron Haberle’s evidence of the massacre in March 1968 by a company of American soldiers of some five hundred unarmed civilians in the village of My Lai, they became important in bolstering the opposition to a war which was far from inevitable, far from intractable, and could have been stopped much sooner. Therefore once could feel an obligation to look at these pictures, gruesome as they were, because there was something to be done, right now, about what they depicted. (263)
Sontag is reinforcing the perspective that photography can cause action. When seeing slaughtered children or the elderly, it is a universal response to want to take responsibility and do something to stop and prevent these atrocities. This was never more evident than when these pictures of My Lai surfaced, and the antiwar movement became stronger than ever. Photographs can have a much larger impact and evoke much more emotion from a person than simply reading or hearing about an event.
2. http://www.all-art.org/history658_photography13-31.html
Above2 is one of Salgado’s most famous pictures taken in Kuwait during the Kuwaiti oil fires. Unlike the other photo, this one was taken during a time of war. In this photo though there are no soldiers, the men are firefighters trying to stop the oil from spewing out of the ground. The men look as if they are standing in the middle of a rainstorm, when they are really just dripping from head to toe in oil. There seems to be a sense of despair coming from the men in the picture, as the man in the background is looking down, almost defeated. Meanwhile the man in the foreground is holding his hands up, as if to ask why? When examined more closely, the man on the left clothes are completely soaked in oil. His shirt appears to be so saturated, that even lifting his arms would be an extremely strenuous task. His pants appear shinny from the oil residue, and the boots seem so drenched that walking would be nothing short of an accomplishment due to their weight. This picture made me think of the atrocities of war, and how far the effects of it stretch. Sontag stated, “Uglifying, showing something at its worst, is a more modern function: didactic, it invited an active response” (260). Because Salgado was able to uglify this picture, it provoked a much stronger reaction from me than most beautiful pictures. The grime dripping off the men, the smoke pillars on the horizon, the darkness and hopelessness the photo projects on its viewer causes them to think about the picture more.
The men’s names are not given, but nonetheless, the viewer feels a sense of sympathy for them. Sontag pointed out a unique aspect that photographs possess, “The illustrative function of photographs leaves opinions, prejudices, fantasies, misinformation untouched” (261). People form their own judgments when seeing a photo, there are no words influencing how they react. Yet Salgado is able to portray an image such as above2, and consistently evoke a sense of compassion for these men (History of Photography). Spreading images such as this across the world would have brought significant attention to the event because of the sheer nature of the picture. The brilliant aspect of photographs is that there is no language barrier. Anyone can look at a photograph and understand its message, thus allowing images to be globalized.
I for one was overcome by memories after seeing the image and learning about some of the background information behind it. It reminded me of the photographs I had seen of other firefighters on September 11, 2001. This image below3 is one in particular that allowed me to relate to the one from Kuwait. The photos themselves are extremely similar in the sense that the firefighters seem to be in a bit of anguish. The one on the left is looking down just as the other firefighter was in Kuwait, and the one on the right is holding out a hand almost asking for help as well. The pillars of smoke are apparent along the horizon again, and that same feeling of hopelessness overtakes the viewer.
September 11, 2001 was an emotionally draining and intense day for me, and most Americans. So seeing pictures that remind me of that morning bring back an immense amount of emotion and thought. Even to this day when I look at picture from 9/11, they seem almost surreal, “Photographs tend to transform, whatever their subject; and as an image something may be beautiful-or terrifying, or unbearable, or quite bearable-as it is not in real life” (Sontag 258). Images of the towers and other scenes from the 9/11 attacks are still difficult to look at for me. Graphic pictures tend to give me the chills, but virtually any image from September 11th sends that same chilling down my spine. This reaction undoubtedly comes from the strong connection I have to that particular event. Even though I was still young at the time, I remember people telling me that this was a significant incident and I would never forget it. Susan Sontag describes how memories are turned into history, and how photos are there to illustrate them:
All memory is individual, unreproducible-it dies with each person. What is called collective memory is not a remembering but a stipulating: that this is important, and this is the story about how it happened, with the pictures that lock the story in our minds. (261)
When I die, my memories of September 11th will be gone forever because they are unique to me. However, the images from that time period will continue for generations. The US culture has put emphasis on not forgetting this date because it wants people to still care about this event in the future. Photographs ensure this can and will happen.
Salgado’s photograph from Kuwait caused me to think of the natives of Kuwait as well. Do they experience similar emotions when they see pictures from 1991 as when I see pictures from September 11th? The picture made me see images of war from a new perspective, and think about how other people might feel when they see certain images.
3. http://topnews.net.nz/content/218252-911-firefighters-attack-contract-cancer
4. http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/salgado/salgado_covers_full.html
In 1984 Ethiopia suffered one of the worst famines in its history that killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced many more. Sebastião Salgado captured4 these four people out a refugee camp in Korem. The child closest to the viewer is once again looking down, and appears to be fatigued and has given up. Upon further inspection, the boy’s hair is thinning, which is often a result from lack of nutrition. There are several markings on his forehead that could be cuts or scars from previous hardships. His eyes are big in comparison to the rest of his face, but they are hidden from the viewer. The next two closest figures, the man and the larger child, are looking directly at the photographer and the viewer gets a sense that they are disgruntled. Their faces are partially hidden and the rest of their bodies are wrapped in cloth that suggests it is cold there. The last persons back is facing the viewer, and the person is overlooking the vast desolate terrain. Susan Sontag comment on Salgado’s work saying, “It also invites them to feel that sufferings and misfortunes are too vast, too irrevocable, too epic to be much changed by any local political intervention” (259). This quote is extremely true in the sense that Salgado’s photographs are so strong, that it causes people to care about what they are seeing. After seeing Salgado’s pictures of these camps, I felt much more obliged to inform myself about what had happened and why.
Although this picture4 is not the most traumatizing by any means, for some reason the smallest child’s face in the front of the image is seared into my mind, “Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else: they haunt us” (Sontag 263). Salgado’s image of that child haunts me. I believe this image has stuck with me due to the boy’s innocent face, and the fact that he is so young. Having younger siblings has caused me to develop a natural urge to protect younger children from wrongdoings and keep them safe. I feel this same urge when looking at this boy, yet I feel helpless at the same time because I know there is nothing I can do for him.
After seeing the image from the refugee camp in Korem, I was instantly hit with copious memories and feelings once again. Every summer I go on a trip to a different part of the country and do community service. Last year I went to California and helped out at a homeless shelter. Many of the people at this shelter were in a disposition because of factors that were out of their control. For example, one man I shared lunch with told me his story of how his house burnt down in a fire and he had nowhere else to turn but the shelter. I felt exceedingly sympathetic for this man because he had done nothing wrong and suffered from a negative externality. Stories such as this one were common on these trips and formed life long memories for me. Susan Sontag remarked:
They invoke the miracle of survival. To aim at the perpetuation of memories means, inevitably, that one has undertaken the task of continually renewing, of creating, memories-aided, above all, by the impress of iconic photographs. People want to be able to visit-and refresh-their memories. (262)
Photographs have the ability to bring back memories and emotions from years ago that would have otherwise been lost. Even though I did not look at an image from my service trip, Salgado’s photo made me feel similar emotions to that trip that caused me to reminisce about that time. Even though the memory was not an overly uplifting one, it was still enjoyable to relive and would not have been possible without Salgado’s photo.
By globalizing his pictures, Sebastião Salgado was successfully able to make people feel a sense of obligation to the event they were seeing. Salgado’s photographs have an uncanny way of drawing emotion, thoughts, and memories out of its viewers, which in turn causes them to take more interest in what they are viewing. I was personally stuck by several of Salgado’s photos because even though they were taken in a distant land I had never been to, I could somehow relate with the hardship going on, “Photographs objectify: They turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed” (Sontag 259). When someone possesses something it is more tangible to them; thus creating a greater sense of responsibility to it. Not only do Salgado’s images make their way across the globe, they are taken from places across the world over large periods of time. By capturing images from a variety of countries and events, Salgado allows his photos to be even more relatable than before due to their diversity. Sebastião Salgado’s photographs are visually magnificent, but at the same time are able to impact their viewer in a way that causes them to feel a personal sense of obligation to what they are seeing.

Works Cited
"History of Photography." History of Art. 2011. Web. 09 Oct. 2011.
Marelli, Adam. "Entering the Circle." Adam Marelli Photo. 2011. Web. 09 Oct. 2011.
"Sebastiao Salgado." Masters of Photography. Web. 09 Oct. 2011.
Sharma, Pallavi. "9/11 Firefighters Attack Contract Cancer." TopNews New Zealand. 09 Feb. 2011. Web. 09 Oct. 2011.
Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2009. Print.

Posted by Shaz at 2:18 PM