Launching a retrospective of Sebastião Salgado must be a daunting task. Salgado has a good claim to be the most famous living photographer; his style is instantly recognizable and endlessly imitated. With images captured in over 100 countries, his body of work documents some of humanity’s darkest stains: displacement, famine, conflict and environmental degradation. To do his work justice, one would need a space that matches the scale of a career that stretches over half a century and has reached every corner of the globe. The responsibility is huge.
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Those in London can find such an attempt at Somerset House, which celebrates Salgado’s career in an exhibition running through May 6. Salgado, who turned 80 this year, is the 17th recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award and the retrospective is displayed as part of a wider exhibition of the Sony Photography awards.
Salgado is an obvious choice. He would spend years on individual projects that covered a range of subjects: migration, urbanization and industrialization. Before he found his calling as a photographer, Salgado completed a PhD in economics. It was only after his frequent visits to Africa working for the International Coffee........