'The Salt of the Earth' does justice to Sebasti茫o Salgado's life and art
It鈥檚 not surprising that Sebasti茫o Salgado has had such a remarkable life. Just look at his photographs. His indelible imagery has captured some of the world鈥檚 most remote and tortuous locations. 鈥淭he Salt of the Earth鈥� 鈥� nominated for an Oscar for best documentary and codirected by Wim Wenders and Salgado鈥檚 son Juliano 鈥� does justice to his life and his art, which are all of a piece.聽
Juliano, who shot much of the color footage (Wenders did the remarkable black-and-white sections), is obviously attempting in this film to connect to the father whose absences spanned most of the boy鈥檚 life. Happily, the film culminates in the chronicling of their collaboration for the project 鈥淕enesis,鈥� traveling all over the world, from Wrangel Island in Siberia to the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea.聽
Like Juliano, Salgado鈥檚 wife, L茅lia, seems not embittered but awestruck by her husband鈥檚 almost missionary compulsion to record scenes of great anguish. She is the prime organizer of his professional life, an indispensable force. But what must it have been like for her to have him, armed only with his cameras, descend decade after decade into the world鈥檚 most troubled hot spots, including West Africa鈥檚 famine-stricken Sahel, the war-torn former Yugoslavia, and, in the wake of the first Gulf War, the burning oil fields of Kuwait? I would like to have heard more from her in the documentary.
She, too, collaborated with Salgado, and at an especially dark time in his life. For his book 鈥淓xodus,鈥� he had photographed ravaged exiles of war, finishing up with the civil war in Rwanda, an experience so horrific he felt his 鈥渟oul was sick鈥� and mankind beyond salvation.聽
It was L茅lia who pulled him back to health, restoring, through replanting, his father鈥檚 arid family estate in his native Brazil. The replanting techniques they devised were so successful they have been used to reforest vast swatches of Brazil鈥檚 Mata Atl芒ntica. It was this rejuvenation that inspired the 鈥淕enesis鈥� project with Juliano.
Salgado started out, of all things, as an economist for the World Bank. Moving to Paris in the 1960s as a self-exile from Brazil鈥檚 dictatorship, he became, with L茅lia鈥檚 encouragement, a professional photographer, making his mark in the 鈥淲orkers鈥� series from the 1980s with the famous images of thousands of Brazilian workers toiling in the giant open-pit gold mine of Serra Pelada. In 鈥淭he Salt of the Earth,鈥� Salgado compares the crush of laborers scaling the mine鈥檚 vast walls to the slaves who built the pyramids 鈥� except, as he wryly notes, these men 鈥渨ere only slaves to the idea of becoming rich.鈥� (He also says, in a line that sounds right out of 鈥淭he Treasure of the Sierra Madre,鈥� that 鈥渕en who come in contact with gold can never leave it.鈥�)
Throughout the documentary the filmmakers offer up an extensive array of Salgado鈥檚 work, sometimes superimposed over shots of his own face. The eerie confluence points up the intensely intimate relationship between the artist and his art.聽
It鈥檚 an art that has sometimes come under fire, although 鈥淭he Salt of the Earth鈥� doesn鈥檛 really acknowledge the criticism. In an influential 1991 New Yorker essay, Ingrid Sischy wrote of his photographs: 鈥淸T]his beautification of tragedy results in pictures that ultimately reinforce our passivity toward the experience they reveal. To aestheticize is the fastest way to anesthetize the feeling of those who are witnessing it. Beauty is a call to admiration, not to action.鈥澛�
But this argument implies that a beautifully composed image must, almost by definition, betray the pain of its subject. It also assumes that art is only beneficial if it is a call to social action. But anybody looking at these photographs without ideological blinders can see that Salgado鈥檚 aestheticism, which is anything but anesthetic, is deeply infused with a sense of woe and outrage.聽
Would his photographs be more 鈥渁uthentic鈥� if they were badly composed? Would Picasso鈥檚 鈥淕uernica鈥� or Michelangelo鈥檚 鈥淧iet脿鈥� have profited from sloppier technique? In attempting to use Salgado鈥檚 compositional mastery against him, Sischy exposed her own aesthetic prejudices, which are weirdly anti-art. Most of the photographs on view in 鈥淭he Salt of the Earth鈥� bear witness to great suffering, and what they exalt is not the photographer鈥檚 eye but the fearful humanity that binds us all. Grade: A- (Rated PG-13 for thematic material involving disturbing images of violence and human suffering, and for nudity.)
