© Sebastiao Salgado /Amazonas Images / nbpictures.
I wouldn’t normally blog about photographic exhibitions but this one is particularly notable and I’ll be stopping in next week. Sky, WWF and the Gallery of Photography have opened ‘AMAZON‘, an exhibition in aid of Sky Rainforest Rescue, featuring the work of two award-winning photographers – Sebastião Salgado and Per-Anders Pettersson.
The exhibition taking place throughout March, brings together two remarkable, distinct bodies of photography, highlighting the plight of the Amazonian rainforest and the people living within it and showcasing the efforts of Sky’s Rainforest Rescue initiative, a three year partnership between Sky and WWF, that began in 2009 and aims to help save one billion trees in the state of Acre, North-West Brazil.
Brazilian photographer, Sebastião Salgado presents work from his ongoing photographic essay ‘Genesis’ that began in 2004 and is due to reach completion this year. The images portray landscapes in their most pristine state, and the communities still living in them, according to ancient traditions and in balance with nature. Through these evocative images, visitors to the exhibition are taken on a journey through environments, which remain intact despite the enormous human destruction taking place, daily, in the region.
Renowned documentary photographer Per-Anders Pettersson presents photographs from a recent visit to Acre with actress Gemma Arterton. These images illustrate the stark reality and level of devastation, caused by deforestation – and give an insight into the progress being made through Rainforest Rescue, which involves the partnership working closely with the Acre State Government to protect this precious part of the world.
The exhibition, which had a critically acclaimed six-week run in Somerset House, London in November 2011, is curated by Bakul Patki and will be accompanied by a programme of talks and events. (See www.galleryofphotography.ie for further information and updates).