Visiting a photo exhibit by Sebastião Salgado always brings deep pleasure due to the perfection of the photos, setting, subject, lighting, and framing. However, it also evokes a sense of disbelief: too perfect, too beautiful to be fully real. I imagine Mr. Salgado in his posh loafers and high-priced clothes, going on an expedition with a myriad of assistants preparing everything for him so that he just has to push the trigger and create the perfect photo signed “Salgado”. His series Amazônia presented at the National Museum of Singapore, curated, and designed by his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado, guardian of the temple, starts in the same way: Majestic landscapes illuminated by an ethereal light, menacing clouds, breathtaking views taken from a helicopter, deep blacks, perfect photos. As we explore further, the exhibit shifts in tone and becomes much more personal. We encounter one by one the inhabitants of the Amazon, people deeply connected with the forest, struggling to preserve their current way of life. This reveals how fragile humanity is and how threatened their ways of life are in today’s world. The exhibit fosters a profound connection with Edneuza, Miro, Alzira, and Sina. They gaze back at us, questioning: why? Through their beauty and elegance, we gain insight into their souls and ponder how humanity went astray, leaving us with a deep sense of unease: We are destroying these people and their way of life with our modern world, leaving us with little more than to gaze at them in awe, admiration and despair. More than just another show, an experience.
