Genesis Revealed

Since elephants (Loxodonta africana) are hunted by poachers in Zambia, they are scared of humans and vehicles and usually run quickly into the bush when approached. However, here the elephant charged the vehicle, and the driver quickly drove away. Kafue National Park, Zambia, 2010. © Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas Images / nbpictures

Eight years of work across 32 countries is presented in a collection of 200 black and white photographs to the viewers of the ‘Genesis‘ exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London. Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist, Sebastião Salgado, captures landscape, seascape, wildlife and humans in the most remote locations on earth, depicting the majestic yet harmonious state of our pristine planet in an uninterrupted, unspoiled, untouched nature. Edited, designed and curated by Lélia Wanick Salgado, the exhibition brings a rush of nostalgia for the warm embrace of mother earth running through the spine.

In the Upper Xingu region of Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, a group of waura fish in the Piulaga Lake near their village. The Upper Xingu Basin is home to an ethnically diverse population. Brazil, 2005. © Sebastião Salgado / Amazonas Images / nbpictures

‘I want people to see our planet in another way,’ states Salgado, ‘to feel moved and be brought closer to it. I want them to become more conscious of the environment, to feel respect for nature because this is something that is relevant to everyone.’

The World Premiere of Genesis opens on Thursday, 11 April 2013 at the Natural History Museum in London and runs till 8 September 2013. After this, it will continue on a global tour to Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Paris.