The Salt Of The Earth Analysis

The Perspective of a Photographer
In the documentary, “The Salt of the Earth,” Juliano Salgado gives the audience a look into the life and career of his father, Sebastiao Salgado, a successful photographer. Sebastiao Salgado began his career as an economist who traveled to countries bordering Brazil. While traveling, he studied different societies and the nature that provided the basic needs for these societies. He would take photographs of the people and their ecosystem to give insight into their life which led him to pursue his passion for photography. Throughout the film, Salgado conveys the audience through photographs and personal experiences that human beings and nature co-exist on earth, thus portraying the importance to protect the earth and attempt to rejuvenate it in order for us to continue to inhabit it. The documentary begins with Salgado as an economist, who would travel to …show more content…
One way it does this is by incorporating nature in many of the photos and videos that Salgado took during his travels. When Salgado traveled to a protected Indian reserve he took photographs of the Indians and incorporated their ecosystem in the background of their photos. He did this by placing native leaves and plants in the photo background and showed the weapons they used that were made from their ecosystem as props. The second way Salgado shows that humans and nature co-exist is by telling the audience about the time that he was tired and decided to take a rest near the seashore. When he took the rest he was startled by a sea lion that approached him and embraced his presence. As soon as the other sea lions noticed additional sea lions approached him as well. This goes to show that the sea lions, a part of nature, did not see him as a threat. This event triggered a change in Salgados’ mindset about nature and he shows how destructive humans are and how it is affecting