Salgado's Legacy

Kuwait oil fields, 1991, by Sebastião Salgado. Photograph: Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado died last week at the age of 81. Another photography hero gone. His photography was the very high quality benchmark that I have never managed to quite attain but always strived for. Salgado's superb blend of beautiful photography and getting to the heart of the subject matter place him right at the top of documentary photographers. He had critics with the term “aesthete of misery" used against him, and his departure from Magnum in 1994 seemed to cause some animosity too. Often it seemed to be a reaction against his success as a photographer.

I'm not going to cover Sebastião Salgado's life and work here. Other bloggers and news websites have done a far better job than I could ever do at summing up his long career. However, for a student photographer in the 1990s, it was just inspiring to see a documentary photographer producing such epic work. With over 30 books published (two or three are on my bookshelf and I'd have bought more if I'd had the money) it was always a visual treat and an education going through the images on the pages. In many respects Salgado had the successful documentary photographer career that we all wanted.

If you aren't familiar with Sebastião Salgado's work then check out some of the links in this post but especially have a look HERE for a great collection of his iconic images.

The word legend is used far too often these days, but Sebastião was a legend in every sense of the word. Another legend lost.

Formula One at 75

If you are a Formula One fan then the BBC and Getty Images have put together a great collection of Formula One photography going through 75 years of the sport.

From Juan Manuel Fangio through to Lewis Hamilton, the page is a great introduction to the history of Formula One as well as a fascinating read for any F1 fan.

Check out F1 at 75 by visiting the link below

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/extra/v7yykmbyey/f1-at-75-by-bbc-sport-and-getty-images

The Gathering Clouds

A dark sky over Old Boat Sheds - Lindisfarne, Northumberland

Last week I got a message to say that my Tumblr blog had reached the grand old age of thirteen years old. I have to admit the number seemed slightly surreal as I looked at it. Then again, this blog will be even older soon with the blog becoming eighteen years old at the end of February. All of my blogs have benefited from relatively calm and save foundations to build on by the blogging platforms. As we've seen recently though, change might come down the line at any time from the large digital overlords in future years. When it comes to the blogs I like to think that I will have the time and options to move them somewhere save if needed. That's what I hope at least.

The same can't be said about social media though. The recent revelations about changes to fact checking at Facebook, Instagram and Threads (USA only at the moment but still worrying) have made me consider my future social media yet again. The last time was when Twitter started changing into the monster that it is now, some eighteen months ago. I made the decision to deactivate the last of my Twitter accounts in November. With some fourteen years of use, over 3000 followers and a once great source of photography news, all a distant memory long before I hit the kill button, I'm just wondering if I'll have to do the same with Instagram and Threads.

In the end, it's about investment. Our time, effort and content. We store our lives on these platforms only for something or someone to move the goalposts years down the line; a change of owner or leadership, economic instability, politics, terms of service etc. Something always changes. Maybe the calculation from Meta etc is that people won't leave these platforms when they are too invested. People live their lives - good and bad - through these social media platforms, not to mention make money as businesses. Too many posts. Too much history. Too established. Leaving is just out of the question! 

Personally I am no longer willing to invest that kind of time and effort into another new social media platform. Back in August 2023, I wrote on the Darker Skies blog my thoughts about Twitter and the changes that were taking place there at the time. Nearly two years later and I'm still of the same mind. My conclusion was that the blog or website should be where I focus my efforts rather than invest too much in a platform that will eventually become too toxic to stay. I still agree with that conclusion. For now I just intend to keep a close eye on things, see what happens and make a decision as and when. That's all I can really do.

An Early Start

 

Old Boat Shed on Lindisfarne, Northumberland - December 2024

Another year started and hopefully it will be a good one. Two photo book releases are planned, one at the start of the year and then another around November. That's the plan I intend sticking to at least.

The end of the year went quite well. A trip up to Northumberland for a week around the middle of November saw a good bit of of photography taking place. Even though the weather was rather windy, the quality of light more than made up for the gusts. You just had to keep the camera as steady as possible and not wave the lens about too much.

The visit Holy Island of Lindisfarne was a nice surprise. A quick drive down revealed that the tide was at its lowest point meaning it was safe to visit without being cut off by the tide. There had been no plans to visit. It just happened. The last time I'd visited Holy Island it was the summer of 1992 and I was 20 years. A student photographer trying to find his creative path.

What would he have thought of the older photographer wandering around the old boat sheds? Horrified probably, though impressed with the camera and lenses. As for advice, I'd just tell him to be more confident. Easy to say, maybe not so easy to be.