And There Was Light: Sebastião Salgado's <i>Genesis</i>
 and (Ethno)Primitivist Realism

Ball, Christopher

doi:10.1111/aman.12679

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 5 publications

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“…The logistical conditions under which such representations are made contribute much to their affects and aesthetic interpretations. In order to gauge Wauja interpretations of Genesis , in 2015 I brought a copy to Piyulaga to share with Wauja people and to see their reactions, an experience I discuss elsewhere (Ball ). While the ways that Wauja people engaged with the text were complex, many viewers had very positive responses to the work, and some evaluations echoed hallmarks of primitivism among Western viewers.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Let There Be Light: Wauja People and the Practice of Photographic Primitivism in Sebastião Salgado's Genesis

Ball¹

2017

Visual Anthropology Review

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Sebastião Salgado's 2013 photographic book Genesis is analyzed as a work of primitivist realism. This analysis is based on ethnography of the photographer's encounter with Wauja people in Brazil in 2005 while he was taking photographs for the book. Primitivism has a long history in the production of images of indigenous subjects in anthropology, and it often projects through its images a narrative suggesting a separation between the modern and the premodern. The realist dimensions of photography reinscribe the spatiotemporal divide, whereas the artistic dimensions of Salgado's black-and-white images of indigenous people featured in Genesis suggest romantic nostalgia.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%