The Sebastião Salgado "Genesis" exhibition at MoPA in San Diego is wrapping up this weekend, luckily I was able to get to see it earlier this month. I am a huge fan of MoPA, and a member. Its a great space, always worth the trek south, and this was another solid exhibition.
I had seen silver prints from Sebastião Salgado's Workers series before and was impressed. I am pretty sure this is the first time I have seen prints from the Genesis series. All the prints at MoPA were digital prints either from original digital files or scanned negatives. The massive scale is impressive and appropriate for the subject matter. The quality of most of the prints were very good. I think MoPA did an outstanding job getting so much work up without it feeling crowded.
The The International Center of Photography was the first venue in the United States to host this exhibition in 2014 which was curated by Lélia Wanick Salgado. The ICP described the exhibition this way: "Genesis is the third long-term series on global issues by world-renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado (born Brazil, 1944), following Workers(1993) and Migrations (2000). The result of an eight-year worldwide survey, the exhibition draws together more than 200 spectacular black and white photographs of wildlife, landscapes, seascapes, and indigenous peoples—raising public awareness about the pressing issues of environment and climate change." A powerful body of work, relevant to today, and well worth the view.
