Brazilian photographer reveals the untouched world

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A view of photographs by Brazilian Sebastiao Salgado during the presentation of his photo exhibition entittled 'Genesis' at the CaixaForum in Barcelona, north-eastern Spain, 22 October 2014. The display features some 245 b&w photographs depicting landscapes, animals and inhabitants who have survived the modern world. The exhibition runs from 23 October 2014 to 08 February 2015. EFE/Andreu Dalmau

The Spanish city of Barcelona will start on Wednesday hosting an exhibition of photographs by Sebastiao Salgado, in which he reveals his vision for the world through his camera. He also shows his newest project, "Genesis," in which he shows the "most pristine" world and visually honors a fragile planet which he believes that "we should, together, have the duty to preserve."

In the exhibition that will last until Feb. 8, visitors can visit the premises of CaixaForum Barcelona hall, and see portions of Planet Earth ranging from Antarctica, Siberia, through Botswana, Madagascar and the Galapagos. Visitors can also see rivers, forests and volcanoes through 245 photos he captured through the "Genesis" project, which focuses on man's practices toward nature.

"We abandoned our planet," Salgado said, "It is necessary to abandon those practices if we wanted to survive as a species."

The exhibit is the product of 32 trips he made in eight years over land, sea and air, taking photos that reveal how exploitation of workers and immigration affected nature.

In the black and white photos, Salgado shows elephant seals, penguins, flamingos, wide-eyed lemurs and a leopard hunting an impala.

Salgado's camera also captured human gatherings, such as men from the Holi ethnicity who use decorative human hair wigs; members of Yali ethnicity, covering their penises with dry leaves; and African mursis, the last women in the world to carry plates in their lips.

Salgado also took photos of a storm in the mountains of Makay, the currents of the Colorado rivers and the Pantanal, one of the largest wetlands in the world.

Salgado, through the expo, aims to inform the public about areas which are still remote from the civilized world, and stress that the planet still has vast and far areas where nature reigns supreme.

Lelia Wanick Salgado, the photographer's wife, who belongs to a family of Brazilian original natives, said assembling this collection of photos, which is segmented by geographical area, was very difficult.

Salgado seemed happy to return to Barcelona, as he said it was the second European city he visited after Lisbon in 1969. He said that he started taking the photos after suffering "serious psychological problems" after years of being at the "peak of the wave of the historical movement."

The photographer, who studied Economics, left his hometown in Brazil to a cattle farm in the valley of the Rio Doce, in the state of Minas Gerais, and there he found "a degraded land", so he began working in reforestation.

"To have a modern society we destroyed everything, which is a huge contradiction." he added. He noted that he works on several projects with environmental workers in Brazil.