The Spectre of Hope: With Sebastiäo Salgado and John Berger
Directed by Paul Carlin, Produced by Paula Jalfon, Colin MacCabe and Adam Simon
First Run/Icarus Films
US VHS, 52 minutes / Color
Price: $390

Migrations
By Sebastiäo Salgado
Aperture, 2000
432 pages
ISBN: 0893818917
Price: $70.00

The Children: Refugees and Migrants
By Sebastiäo Salgado and Lelia Wanick Salgado (Ed.)
Aperture, 2000
112 pages
ISBN: 0893818941
Price: $45.00

Reviewed by Amy Ione
PO Box 12748,
Berkeley,
CA USA 94712-3748

ione@diatrope.com

Today there are over 100 million international migrants, a number that has doubled in the span of a decade. The Spectre of Hope video and the Migrations and The Children: Refugees and Migrants photographic collections introduce us to some of these people. Through Sebastiäo Salgado's masterly photographs we meet peasants, migrant workers, refugees, and children from 43 countries, all of whom were displaced when their lives were touched by globalization. The video tells us that few are responsible for their situations and they do not comprehend how their lives came to the present state. Many see their lives as in transition and perceive this as a temporary state. Understandably, they hope to return to the stable lives they knew before becoming displaced. Comprehension is not an easy task for the viewer of the images either. Looking at the faces and circumstances from my armchair in Berkeley, USA, it is difficult to perceive how they will once again find 'normal' lives and livelihoods. It is not difficult, however, to feel the plight of their lives.

The Spectre of Hope offers a larger prospective on the collections. Through a dialogue between the photographer Sebastiäo Salgado's and the art critic John Berger we hear how migration has altered the lives of those we see in the stills as they move across the screen. Salgado's most noteworthy achievement is his ability to remind us that visual imagery changes an abstract idea into an emotional explanation, capable of piercing through to the heart of what life is. Black and white photographs accentuate the emotional nature of the presentation and aid Salgado in keeping the focus on the glimpse of globalization he offers. Gathered over six years and in countries ranging across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, the photojournalistic collection paints a portrait that includes Rwanda, Mexico, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Salgado's native Brazil, and elsewhere. When the photographer and the art critic speak about this massive project, in Berger's home in the Swiss Alps, we hear the passion Salgado brought to the making of these images. His words underscore the degree to which he fulfilled his goals of showing the world those who have not benefited from globalization, (which Berger says actually enhances the lives of only one in five on the planet). During their dialogue Berger correctly exclaims that one feels the word YES in Salgado's vision. This is not a yes of approval, but one that recognizes these heart-wrenching situations exist. This photographer's capacity to expose a too often obscured side of global reality helps provoke those who look at the pictures to move beyond indifference. Through the still images and the video we feel the hope of these people from all over the world who are trying to again find a stable position in life, and we add our own hope to it.

Salgado unparalleled perspective on globalization is strongly rooted in his own history. Born on a farm in the rural state of Minas Gerais in Brazil, he moved to a small town at the age of five, and eventually trained as an economist. Realizing that economic statistics and dry written reports did little to convey the plight of real people, he began to tell their stories with his camera. He now does this with such mastery that it is impossible to verbally convey the degree to which a single photograph can juxtapose the uprooted, the impoverished, the helpless with the haunting beauty and dignity of people who seem very much alive as they look at us through the prints. Salgado reveals that many of those recorded allowed him to photograph them because they wanted to make their predicament known to others. When he explained that his purpose was to introduce their living situations to people in distant lands, they stood before the camera and addressed it as if it were a microphone. Each photograph captures the dignity of those living face-to-face with war, famine and poverty. The children are the most memorable. Individual expressions are enhanced by the story Salgado tells about how he came to take their pictures. The children, he explains, were fascinated by this white man toting a Leica. Invariably they would come up to him, wanting attention, wanting to see the camera, and wanting him to take a picture. Finally he successfully told them that he would take a picture of each of them if they would let him get on with his work. This resulted in the book called The Children: Refugees and Migrants. As Berger declares, each seems to say, "I exist" while also managing to introduce a unique individual to those of us who now see them from afar.

It is tempting to say that the video, with its music and editing, losses something due to the way the 'script' influences how we see the work. Similarly, it is tempting to say that the printed publication allows one to appreciate the artistry of the images, the complexity of the compositions, and Salgado's uncanny ability to make the people real. Both of these comments, while holding a partial truth, would fail to convey how effective Salgado's work is in whatever form is used to present it. Anyone who cares about the state of our world and the populations that have not benefited from globalization definitely needs to engage with Salgado's photographs. The video is an excellent introduction to both Migrations and The Children series. It would be particularly effective in a cultural studies classroom given the way John Berger's comments, as well as Sebastiäo Salgado's explanations, expand the story the pictures tell. The Spectre of Hope visually conveys how technology, industry, and a global economy have transformed people's lives, often making life harder. Still the video doesn't provide the kind of silence and prolonged viewing that the books offer. Leafing through the books one can spend more time with each picture and read the commentary Salgado includes as well. The words explain who or what we see, adding some dimension to each image and situation.

Overall, Sebastiäo Salgado's photographs aid us in re-thinking how we live, and how we coexist in a global society. His photojournalistic images reach far beyond the sensationalism of television and other forms of mass media. Finally, The Spectre of Hope, Migrations and The Children: Refugees and Migrants remind us of the degree to which photography and video have altered communication about our world. Prior to the invention of the camera, these kinds of images could only be rendered using words or, perhaps, line drawings. As a result, the circumstances of normal people were usually not exposed. Line drawings took time and only a major event would be recorded in a painting. Now our tools allow us to we see more and expose invisible populations to a greater degree. The video and the book collections all introduce us to global migration and each impels the viewer to add his or her hope to the hope we see in the many faces Salgado brings into our lives.