I went to hear Salgado speak last night. The lecture hall was packed to overflowing, and many people were turned away. Circumstances worked well for me (for a change) and I was seated fifth row, center.
Salgado spoke little about photography, per se, but had much to say about the economic and political policies of globalization, and its destructive forces upon the people he's photographed and others like them. He's a quiet, but passionate man, smaller in physical stature than I'd imagined him to be, whose English, while not very good, is still able to make his points eloquently and persuasively. He is clearly deeply saddened by the economic and political direction that things are heading today. His newest project is a book about polio, which he's about finished with, and after that he wants to go through all of the photos he's taken over the years and put together a book based on a more personal selection of his work. I got the sense that he's thinking of retiring from photography, or at least from making photographs in such brutal manner, that is so invasive of his time and energy, and moving toward a more tranquil part of his life. He talked about watching his son, and other young photographers, continuing the work, and in a very subtle way, addressed his own mortality, noting that, at 58 years old, if he were lucky, he'd have another 25 years left, and that it's time to spend more time with his family and other interests. I think you would have been moved by this man in much the same way so many have been moved by his photographs. -- Shel Belinkoff mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~belinkoff/ - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
