ImpArt: I heart Salgado

One day, I am going to meet Sebastião Salgado.

I want a glimpse into his brain. Or more specifically, I want to understand how his eyes see what they see and how he has the innate ability to capture what he sees so beautifully in a photograph.

I am in total awe of his work, even jealous I admit. And there is no surprise why. The black and white photographer has produced some of the most striking social documentary photographs ever. 

In the past, Salgado’s collections have focused on human-related social issues such as migration and urbanization. His current project, Genesis, documents the world's many eco-regions and serves as his homage to the planet. Recently, The New York Times sent the photographer to Alaska to add to his current collection.

Salgado’s photographs are never just art pieces, gracing the walls of a gallery. They are catalysts for change and move their viewers in disparate ways. Shocking, beautiful, serene, and haunting all in one glance.

Devoted to social impact through photography, Salgado also serves as one of UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassadors.

As an ambassador, photographer, and activist, his message is simple:

What I want is the world to remember the problems and the people I photograph. What I want is to create a discussion about what is happening around the world and to provoke some debate with these pictures. Nothing more than this. I don't want people to look at them and appreciate the light and the palate of tones. I want them to look inside and see what the pictures represent, and the kind of people I photograph.  -Sebastião Salgado

ImpArt: A Glimpse of Energy Poverty

Imagine no light to study and no electricity for refrigerating food or to heat your home. A few days ago, I caught a glimpse of this life of darkness in photojournalist Peter DiCampo’s exhibition, Life Without Light, held in Brooklyn.

Peter, a fellow at VII Photo Agency, is on a mission to detail the global 1.4 billion population who live without access to electricity as well as some of the potential solutions to this problem. The exhibition showcases energy poverty in Ghana, where an estimated 73 percent of villages in the north of the country remain without electricity.

Life Without Lights from Peter DiCampo on Vimeo.

Shot at night, Peter’s photos illustrate how difficult living without lights could be. Many of the photos portray villagers’ faces hidden in the night’s darkness, depicting a commonality found in poverty: these are the invisible, the unknown, and the forgotten.

Last year, a number of UN agencies released a report declaring that solving energy poverty doesn’t have to be expensive or worsen climate change. Estimates are that an annual investment of $41 billion a year – or .06 percent of the global GDP – would be sufficient to provide electricity for 395 million people by 2015.

Life Without Light is running until July 12 at 28 Jay Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn. You can also view the photographs at http://www.lifewithoutlights.com/.