Себастьян Сальгадо. Рабочие

Sebastião Salgado. Workers

Sebastião Salgado’s photo book classicWorkers. An Archaeology of the Industrial Age(first published in 1993) pays tribute to the time-honoredtradition of manual laborin the new millennium when machines and computers replace human workers throughout the globe. Withimages of striking beauty and integrity, Salgado composes avisual elegy for the working men and women, whose indomitable spirit has prevailed over the harshest of conditions to achieve a singular grace.More than those of any other living photographer,Sebastião Salgado’s images of the world’s poor stand intribute to the human condition. Salgado defines his work as “militant photography”, dedicated to “the best comprehension of human being”; over the decades he has bestowed great dignity on the most isolated and neglected among us — from famine-stricken refugees in the Sahel to the indigenous peoples of South America.WithWorkers, Salgado brings us aglobal epicthat transcends mere image making to become an affirmation of the enduring spirit of working men and women. In this volume, three hundred fifty duotone photographs form an archaeological perspective of the activities that have defined hard work from the Stone Age through the Industrial Revolution to the present. With images of the infernal landscape of an Indonesian sulfur mine, the drama of traditional Sicilian tuna fishing, and the staggering endurance of Brazilian gold miners, Salgado unearths layers of visual information to reveal the ceaseless human activity at the core of modern civilization.Workerspresents its subject on several interactive levels: Salgado’s introductory text, written in collaboration with Brazilian authorEric Nepomuceno, expands his passionate photographic iconography; extended captions, also written by Salgado, provide a historical and factual framework. Honoring the timeless and indomitable spirit of the manual laborer,Workersrenders the human condition with honesty and respect.