Over the course of eight years, veteran photojournalist Sebastião Salgado -- traveling by plane, on foot, by canoe and even balloon -- took more than 30 trips to some of the most remote and untouched corners of the globe. That included visiting the penguins of the Antarctic, gaping at the stunning ravines of the Grand Canyon and spending time with the isolated Zo’é tribe who live deep in the Amazon jungle. In each place or community in which he found himself, Salgado pulled out his camera and documented the experience.
His purpose? To show the world through his photographs that despite the havoc that humans have wreaked on the planet, despite climate change and deforestation and widespread development, there are still places on the globe that remain, as he put it, "pristine." He says he hopes his photos -- which have been compiled into a book and exhibition entitled "Genesis" -- will show others that there is still hope for our Earth. We only need to work hard, and together, to not destroy what we have left, Salgado says.
“Some 46 percent of the planet is still as it was in the time of Genesis,” said Salgado, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, in a news release. “We must preserve what exists.”
"Genesis" is “my love letter to the planet,” he added. And it's certainly a beautiful one.
Salgado's "Genesis" will be on exhibition at the International Center of Photography in New York City from September 19 to January 2015. According to the ICP, this is the first time that "Genesis" is being exhibited in the U.S.
Scroll down to see a few images from the series, one of which includes nudity:
