Making the most of last Sunday’s autumnal sunshine, I took the opportunity to visit a photography exhibition, which had registered on my radar of ‘things to see’. Wrapped up in my winter best, the courtyard at Somerset House was nothing far off a wonderland in the heart of London town. However, it was not the ice-skating and general Christmas cheer that I was there for, but a much harder hitting cause.
In aid of Sky Rainforest Rescue, the Amazon exhibition housed in the East Wing Galleries is neatly tucked away from the sun soaked courtyard of Somerset House. It is here that a commendable partnership between Sky and WWF presents a collaboration of two influential photographers, looking to provide Londoners with an insight into the plight of the Amazonian rainforest and its inhabitants. With hopes that such exposure will encourage interest in their project of saving 1 billion vulnerable trees in the state of Acre, north-west Brazil, it’s a worthy cause worth a visit, and what’s more, it’s free!
© Sebastiao Salgado/Amazonas/nbpictures
The exhibition is introduced to the public with the works of Sebastião Salgado, who has taken the opportunity to present personal pieces from his ongoing photographic essay ‘Genesis’. ’I relished the opportunity to present some of my unseen images in the exhibition and highlight the beauty that must be preserved.’
His work combines a number of exquisite landscape scenes and tribal communities inhabiting such a rich and beautiful habitat. The images are undoubtedly impressive and awe inspiring, although suspiciously utopian. I wonder whether these Amazonian families were stripped of their Nike shorts and baseball caps, to be adorned in elaborate jewellery and tribal paint for the purpose of great photography. If it’s beautiful shots Salgado was after, it definitely works. However, I can’t help but wonder if the reality of the dark depths facing the Amazon have been traded for aesthetics.
The exhibition moves on to a contrasting series from Per-Anders Pettersson, made up of photography directly supporting Sky Rainforest Rescue. Pettersson documents his visit to Acre, accompanied by actress Gemma Arterton. Whilst describing his work as both ‘beautiful and heart breaking in equal measure’, I wasn’t overwhelmed by tugging heart-strings as the rhetoric seemed to suggest.
- © Pers-Anders Petterson
Maybe it was something to do with the sounds of Rihanna booming off the ice-rink and reverberating around the gallery; or the bizarre presence of actress Gemma Arterton, undercutting the seriousness of the issue in aid of unimaginative publicity; or maybe we have just become desensitised to these ‘natural devastation’ narratives and images.
Whilst many of the issues which have led to the deforestation of the Amazon have arguably been skirted over in the exhibition, Vice’s footage from their ‘Toxic: Amazon’ series, providing an in depth account of the Amazon’s deforestation, is comparatively harrowing, raw and un-cut. The documentary tells the personal story of leaders of social movements who live by the mantra ‘If you have the courage to fight, then fight.’ It is these courageous few, fighting on behalf of the masses against the rapid deforestation at the epicentre of the Amazon’s devastation, who are being brutally murdered, their passionate voices silenced.
The reality of poverty, murder, and corruption is difficult to overlook when tackling the pressing issue of the Amazon’s deforestation. Whilst Sky have admirably highlighted an important cause through their current exhibition at Somerset House, whether or not they successfully project the voices of those silenced in the bloody depths of the rainforest, I’ll leave up to you.
That said, I absolutely encourage you to visit the exhibition in the neo-classical surroundings of Somerset House, promoting a worthy cause to a potentially oblivious, but influential, audience. Be wowed by breath-taking photography of the incredible Amazonian landscape and its inhabitants; be encouraged to maintain the beautiful scenes you witness by supporting the cause; but don’t be misled by Gemma Arterton’s cheerful smile. These are not images from the glossy pages of Heat Magazine. These are glossy images portraying the very real issue of deforestation, which is creating very real pain for the inhabitants of the Amazon, a pain somewhat vacant from this sugar-coated show.
The Amazon exhibition will be open until the 4th December. Admission is free.
Watch ‘Toxic – Amazon’ Part 1 below
