He is an artist: a man who sees, and in doing so helps us to see. In this monumental work, Salgado discovers and reveals the world at the end of the millennium: this is the great Odyssey of our time, this voyage where shipwrecks outnumber those still on course.
Eduardo Galeano

With nearly 100 million migrants in the world today, an unparalleled level of demographic change is profoundly challenging our most basic notions of community, nation, culture, and citizenship. Migrations, Humanity in Transition: Photographs by Sebastião Salgado, a major traveling exhibition, is the first extensive pictorial study to document the global phenomenon of mass migration. The exhibition will be on view at the International Center of Photography, 1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43^rd Street, from June 22 through September 9, 2001.

This presentation is sponsored by BP.

For over seven years, in more than 35 countries, the gifted and internationally renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado has devoted his attention to the ongoing and epic reorganization of mankind. The pictures being shown are a metaphor for the millions of people throughout the world who have broken ties with homeland and tradition to seek a safer and more livable existence. These photographs also tell the story of how explosive population growth, environmental degradation, natural disasters, and economic pressures have made migration a phenomenon that affects every aspect of social, political, and cultural life. The exhibition surveys the Latin American exodus to the United States, refugees from all sides in the former Yugoslavia, the Indians of Brazilís Amazon, Jews leaving the former Soviet Union, migrants to major urban centers and victims of rural poverty throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America, refugees from civil wars in Africa, exiled Palestinians in Lebanon, and Vietnamese "boat people," among many other displaced groups.

Salgadoís unique background and perspective work to give us a clearer picture of the enormous social and political transformations now occurring in a world divided between excess and need. He states: "[This] is a disturbing story because few people uproot themselves by choice. Most are compelled to become migrants, refugees, or exiles by forces beyond their control, by poverty, repression, or warÖPeople have always migrated, but something different is happening now. For me, this worldwide population upheaval represents a change of historic significance. We are undergoing a revolution in the way we live, produce, communicate, and travel. Most of the worldís inhabitants are now urban. We have become one world: in distant corners of the globe, people are being displaced for the same reasonsÖwrenched from their homes, [they] are simply the most visible victims of a global convulsion entirely of our own making."

As Salgado acknowledges, these extraordinary images present viewers with no answers, but instead push us to confront the persistent questionsóthose that ask if being "informed" is sufficient, and whether or not we can affect the course of events, as opposed to remaining passive spectators. His photographs prod us to consider the necessity of a kind of active attention, what Richard Lacayo in TIME described as a "combination of eyesight and understandingÖlook plus think."

Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado has been awarded virtually every major photographic prize in the United States, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, and Sweden. Trained as an economist, he began working as a photojournalist in 1973. His book An Uncertain Grace was published in 1990 to enormous acclaim, followed in 1993 by the epic Workers, and most recently by Migrations (2000). A recipient of the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, he has twice been presented with the Infinity Award for Photojournalism by the International Center of Photography. Salgado is based in Paris and has exhibited his work worldwide.

This exhibition is curated by Lélia Wanick Salgado.
Aperture, a not-for-profit organization devoted to photography and the visual arts, has organized this traveling exhibition and produced the accompanying publications. Major support for Migrations, Humanity in Transition has been provided by Kodak Professional, a division of Eastman Kodak Company.

The presentation at the International Center of Photography is sponsored by BP.

Publication:

The exhibition is accompanied by Migrations: Humanity in Transition

(9 æ x 14", 432 pages, 330 duotone photographs, $100.00, published by Aperture)

(9 æ x 13", 112 pages, 91 duotone photographs, $45.00, published by Aperture)

Concept and design by Lélia Wanick Salgado