The
images are positively biblical in nature, depicting thousands of muddy people
at work in a massive pit. They could theoretically be laying the foundation for
an ancient pyramid, but in actuality the famous photographs were taken in 1986
at Brazil’s Serra Pelada gold mine by acclaimed
photographer Sebastião Salgado. It’s this photo-essay
that first turned filmmaker Wim Wenders
on to Salgado’s art, and after a couple decades as a fan, Wenders,
along with Sebastião’s eldest son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, has crafted a powerful documentary
portrait of Sebastião’s life and work. Wenders’ perspective as an admiring outsider dovetails with
Juliano’s agenda, which involves getting better
acquainted with a largely absentee father who was busy crisscrossing the globe
to document the spectrum of humanity with his camera, and many of those
stirring images are on display in the Oscar-nominated “The Salt of the Earth.”
We learn that Sebastião
began his professional life as an economist, of all things, before relocating
from Brazil to France and picking up wife Lélia’s
camera. After a few years, the Salgados decided to go
all in on Sebastião’s new career, one that was
surprisingly still informed by his old one. “He knew what was driving the
world,” Wenders says by way of serene narration that
enhances this film’s main attraction, Sebastião
himself providing insight into his iconic images. Turns out the handsome
septuagenarian, his face etched and tanned, is as eloquent in front of a camera
as he is behind one. Whether marveling over the hypnotically symmetrical scales
on a lizard or recounting a father preparing his son for burial, his thoughtful
observations put to rest the notion that a photographer must be detached and
dispassionate.
And though his photos offer a kind
of beauty in truth, Sebastião began to purposely
place himself where the pictures weren’t very pretty. He documented
firefighters on the job in the burning Kuwaiti oil fields, the plight of
displaced refugees in the former Yugoslavia, and the brutal realities of life
in Africa, from the famine-ravaged Sahel to humanitarian hell of Rwanda.
“Everybody should see these images, to see how terrible our species is,” Sebastião says. But his determination to bear witness
exacted a heavy psychological toll, one that would be mitigated in the 1990’s
by returning to roots both literal and figurative, when Sebastião
and Lélia began the painstaking process of reversing
the environmental damage to the Salgado farm in Brazil and the Atlantic Forest.
Save for a few mentions, “The Salt
of the Earth” ultimately doesn’t delve too much into the relationship between Sebastião and his son Juliano,
who clearly relishes the opportunity to accompany his father on a wildlife
photography trek, but more from Sebastião’s wife Lélia would have been most welcome. Though she’s not the
one traveling the world and composing the art, Lélia
comes across as the silent brains of the Salgado operation, in charge of
research, logistics, and child-rearing. The Salgados
probably couldn’t have put themselves in better hands than those of Wenders, who has also filmed documentaries like 1999’s “The
Buena Vista Social Club” and 2011’s “Pina.” The difference between those
subjects and a photographer like Sebastião, according
to Wenders? “The man shoots back.”
This article appears in Apr 29 – May 5, 2015.
