Sebastiao Salgado Techniques

I recently viewed a few Salgado images at the International Photography Hall of

Fame. One photograph in particular, Famine in the Sahel (1984) was haunting

beautiful and printed quite large for small format at 17 x 11.3 inches. A

similar image, Refugees In The Korem Camp Ethiopia (1984) can be seen under his

name at http://masters-of-photography.com. Up-close, the image is void of fine

details and the photograph reminded me that print sharpness is often an

overrated goal. The content, forms, and light made the image. The photograph

did not required texture to be interesting.

 

I love B&W prints because they depart from reality and often make us stop and

look. Salgado's subject, framing, vantage point, image contrast, and use of

atmosphere draw you in. Does anyone know Salgado's tool techniques such as

camera/film/developer/paper?

I don't think it really matters what he uses. Each person will come up with a completely different look even if each uses exactly thesame combination. This is what style is and how each uses thesame tool, film etc. differently.

 

I know Salgados work well. My wife and I frequently travel to view different art and photographic shows and have seen his work a couple of times.

 

I've collected vintage photographs for about forty years. I have many prints ranging from Edward Weston, Adams, Lewis Hine, Walker Evans, Imogen Cunningham and Dorothea Lange and have had a chance to study them closely. I have an original print of the migrant woman with her children that you often see as an icon of the depression. Interestingly she midded her focus. The focus is behind the ladies eyes and the face is soft. This didn't keep the image from being highly prized. It's the content in many cases vs the technical execution.

These are photographs of starving people. The photographs are about suffering and

death. Worse: suffering and death due to preventable, unjust situations. It's interesting

that the compelling subject matter so often plays second fiddle to the beauty of the

images. I've heard Salgado say that he does not like to be called an "artist". Rather, he

wants viewers to grapple with the content of his photos. What does this say about the way

we look at photographs in the 21st Century or the effectiveness of photography as a tool

for raising conciousness? I'm not berating Richard Jepsen, this is just an observation.

Curiosity about the equipment of photographers we admire is natural.

I believe the Impact that a print has, because of its Subject matter, Lighting , Composition,and Emotion ,is what makes a photo great. If you are concentrating on the grain of one of my people photos, or the shadow detail, then I have not done my job very well. Where a properly exposed and full tonal range in a photo IS important to me, is with a landscape photograph.

Richard--In the time period you're talking about I believe he carried two M Leicas and one (I

think) R. One M had Tri-X and the other a high speed film such as TMax3200. He might have

carried two R's with the same films in it. Depending on light and subject matter he shot with

either the M or the R on one or the other emulsion. Once he got into his huge "Workers"

project he had all his stuff printed by a lab in Paris. That's about all I remember of his "tool

techniques" for photographing.

Hello Richard,

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00B2kH

 

http://www.imaginoir.fr/

(I am pretty sure this is the printer he has used)

 

He has held exhibitions where the prints were as large as 20x30 inches. I suggest you

purchase the book "Sahel The End of the Road" by Salgado.

He has been a great example of a Leica user, both M&R (I think with limited lens on the M, more on the R for its values). However, he has not been constrained only to Leica. The New Yorker magazine had a very nice article on him within the past 6 months-1 year, and covered his recent South American tour, which is marvelous and nature oriented -- extending his problems-of-the-world-view to more than the poor and displaced people. In that article, he referred to the nuisance of "licking the tabs" on several thousand rolls of film (suggestive of medium format), and I have had the impression he has used Mamiya recently. In that article his Paris base of operations was also described -- something like three floors, a dedicated darkroom and darkroom staff (he has his own team of printers, one master). The article did not have specifics of film or paper,or even camera.

 

I am pretty sure the 1980's era stuff is Leica, and mostly Ilford (?). The rest, printing and so forth, does not have a magic recipe, or magic answer. I think his eye or vision could have been satisified with other equipment and film combinations, once he had learned them. Master printer support (that is a partnership) is something that would improve the final images for most of us.

I believe that he has switched from Leica to Pentax 645.

Wow, lots of good links. I'm not drawn to Salgado's dark images but I appreciate his work and learned by looking at Refugees In The Koren. It's helpful to see actual prints to get a full perspective. If the film was Tri-X, the tight grain did not distract from the 11x17 inch image.

I saw Salgado working in Southern Mexico about 10 years ago. He was using Leica Rs and burning a lot of film. He took so many pictures that even the locals were amazed. He just shot and shot and shot.

 

On the other hand, while it's often interesting to learn what techniques famous photographers use, I think it's more important for each shooter to find his own way of doing things.

Bill is correct that he switched to a Pentax 645, it was <a href="http://arts.guardian.co.uk/salgado/story/0,,1365885,00.html" target="_blank">reported in the Guardian almost two years ago</a>. For a summary of his current Genesis project see this Manchester Grauniad [sic] ;-) link: <a href="http://arts.guardian.co.uk/salgado/0,15021,1294976,00.html" target="_blank">Special Report: Sebastião Salgado Genesis</a>.

It's interesting how reglarly people comment on Salgado's technique.

 

The images do look distinctive, but I think that's more a matter of the results he's after than the tools, chemicals etc: He could demand his results of a digicam file.

 

It's also interesting how distinctive and wonderful his images appear in both newsprint and in museum murals...this is not just a matter of emotional subject matter.

 

I find it strange that people think 35mm is most appropriate for little prints. Apparently this prejudice comes from experience with certain enlarger optics or from camera magazine filler articles.

Promotional murals in museums regularly prove otherwise. I'm thinking, for example, of a DD Duncan mural of Pablo Picasso.

<i>In that article, he referred to the nuisance of "licking the tabs" on several thousand rolls of film (suggestive of medium format), and I have had the impression he has used Mamiya recently.</i>

<p>

No, he's using a Pentax 67 for his recent nature work.

Sorry -- Peter's right it was a 645.

He does benefit from excellent printing and processing. A friend of mine attended ICP in New York and had a lecture from his printer. He showed some of his work prints and apparently they were incredibly complicated, as you would expect. (There is a documentary about him that shows worker bees at his printer bleaching all the eyes in his prints.)

 

I've read that his film is developed by inspection, which would also make for a *massive* amount of work.

Salgado uses Kodak Tri-X (200-800asa) and TMZ 3200, reportedly developed in Rodinal

for that very grainy look. I forgot who his printer is, but after seeing many of his prints, I'm

convinced that the guy or gal is a genius in the darkroom.

 

He shot 'Workers" etc with with several Leica R (6/6.2) and according to an interview with

28, 35, 50 (Lux), 60 (Macro-R) and 90mm lenses. Salgado also shoots Leica M.

 

Currently he is shooting a new project on the vanishing animal world, documenting the

last unspoiled places on earth. No humans in this project. Last year there was a big article

in the Guardian or Independent (U.K.) about it.

 

For the new project he started out with the Pentax 645 system, but I recently read a blip

somewhere that he has switched to the Hasselblad H system.

"He just shot and shot and shot" J. Sevigny.

 

You are right! On one of my trips to Brazil, talking with my photographer friend, I learned that in the post Kuwait war, he shot 40 rolls of film per day. The only one that I ever saw published, was the one with the two oil soaked resting workers.

 

With this technique I wonder how he's going to photograph with a Hasselblad V.