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Boston Globe
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Looking back at ‘Where's Boston?' then and where Boston is now
'Seeing Across Generations' which runs through Sept. 14 at the Leica Gallery, has only 15 Manos photographs in it (all but two are from 'Where's Boston?'), but they give an exciting sense of how varied and expressive his work was. Constantine Manos, "Librarian at Work, Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA," 1976. Courtesy Robert Klein Gallery Advertisement The show also gives a sense, however indirectly, of another important aspect of Manos's career, teaching. There's also recent work two other photographers in the show: Stella Johnson, who studied with Manos, and Iaritza Menjivar, who studied with Johnson. So the title 'Seeing Across Generations' applies not just to the people in the photographs, both then and now, but also to the photographers. Boston is such a compact city, which makes all the more impressive how many slices and flavors of it come through in Manos's 15 images. They're a cross-section doing double duty as celebration and evocation. Manos shows Franklin Park, the Athenaeum, Government Center (a lot of people still called it Scollay Square back then — that's how long ago this was), the North End, Mattapan, East Boston, South Boston, the South End, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The two non-'Where's Boston?' photos are from 1960 and show BSO music director Charles Munch on the podium. Advertisement Stella Johnson, "Roller Skate Dance Plaza, Venice Beach, CA," 2022. Stella Johnson It's tempting to view the 'Where's Boston?' images as history or sociology, and seen that way they're striking. But that slights how artful they can be: the way the curve of heads and balloons in 'Waiting for Columbus Day Parade' chime or how the marvelous array of objects in 'Librarian at Work' are all placed just so within the frame. A novel could be written about the tableau in 'Girls with Baby Carriages at Neighborhood Grocery,' and notice how elegantly Manos situated that dog right in the center. All the Manos photographs are in black-and-white. He was also a master of color, and at a time when color was still rare in serious photography. Iaritza Menjivar, "Casa de Eva, Neochea, Argentina," 2025. Iaritza Menjivar Advertisement The subtitle of 'In Be t w een Middle: Where Stories Reside' could be applied to all the photographs in 'Seeing Across Generations' — which title, in turn, very much applies to 'In Be t w een Middle.' This unusual, and unusually vibrant, exhibition is in the Grossmann Gallery of the University of Massachusetts at Boston's Healey Library through Dec. 4. What 'Where's Boston?' is to the Leica Gallery show, where Boston is now — a statement, not a question — is to 'In Be t w een Middle.' Lisa Kessler, from "In Between Middle: Where Stories Reside." Lisa Kessler The exhibition chronicles the final year of Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School, in Grove Hall. Four vitrines display items about the school's history. There's a QR code for a student-assembled Frederick Pilot Playlist. Hanging on the walls are student texts and artworks: paintings, sculpture, mixed media, even some fashion, most notably 16 fabric 'empowerment capes,' created by multi-media-arts teacher Ivy Davis and her students. Superheroes might wear them. Lisa Kessler, from "In Between Middle: Where Stories Reside." Lisa Kessler The heart of the show is more than 50 color photographs by Lisa Kessler. The photographs are unframed, which gives them a casual, inviting look. That's in keeping with the scenes they show of daily student life. None have captions. It's a tribute to Kessler's connection to students and staff that this in no way seems like an omission. Really, the photographs don't need words. They're that forthright, lively, immediate. Viewers understand what's taking place in them without needing to be told any details. Advertisement In an email, Kessler wrote that 'the most important part of the exhibit for me was when students came and saw the photographs of themselves and their classmates.' Constantine Manos would have appreciated that and, surely, approved. SEEING ACROSS GENERATIONS At Leica Gallery, 74 Arlington, through Sept. 14. 857-305-3609, IN BE T W EEN MIDDLE: Where Stories Reside At Grossmann Gallery, Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., through Dec. 4. 617-287-5900, Mark Feeney can be reached at
Boston Globe
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Sebastião Salgado, photographer of human misery and dignity, dies at 81
A scene from the 2014 French/Brazilian documentary film "The Salt of the Earth," directed by Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders. Courtesy of (c) Sebastiao Salgado In his landmark 1986 photo essay of gold mine workers in the Pará state in northern Brazil, one image showed a man encased in sweat and dirt cresting a wooden ladder. A loaded bag from the mine floor was held by a rope around his forehead. Another scene, shot from within the mine, was a wide-angle tableau of workers climbing and digging in an ant-like flow. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Goldmine, Serra Pelada, State of Pará, Brazil, 1986 © Sebastião Salgado © Sebastião Salgado, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery Advertisement For decades, Mr. Salgado was on hand for many of the world's major crises - the devastating famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s, the 1991 US-led war to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and other upheavals. He described his mission as seeking to convey a sense of the ordinary people caught, often helpless, in the tumult. The assignment in Kuwait was for The New York Times Magazine and centered on the efforts of workers struggling to extinguish oil-well fires set by Saddam Hussein's troops, an environmental disaster that came to define Iraq's turbulent retreat from Kuwait. 'The photos were beyond extraordinary,' said Kathy Ryan, a former photo director at magazine, who worked with Mr. Salgado on that assignment. 'It was one of the best photo essays ever made.' Advertisement On another noteworthy assignment, Mr. Salgado documented dramatic scenes following a failed assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981. He photographed the gunman, John Hinckley Jr., moments after he was tackled to the ground. 'Everyone knows he had an incredible way of making pictures,' Ryan said. But, she added, he also had an uncanny sense of 'where important stories were.' His other projects - part of a body of work spanning 120 countries - included a series on migrants in North Africa desperate to reach Europe and the life in slums where the immediate concerns are food and safety. 'I admit there's a very specific message in my work,' Mr. Salgado said in a 1990 interview with journalist Amanda Hopkinson in London. 'The developing countries have never been as poor or as dependent as they are today.' 'It is time to launch the concept of the universality of humanity,' he continued. 'Photography lends itself to a demonstration of this and as an instrument of solidarity between peoples.' A scene from "The Salt of the Earth," directed by Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders. Photo courtesy of (c) Sebastiao Salgado An economist by training, he borrowed his wife's camera in 1971 while working in London for the International Coffee Organization. During a trip to Africa, he took photos of workers and rural life. 'Four days later I had an obsession; a fortnight later, a camera of my own,' Mr. Salgado recounted. 'Within a month I had a darkroom.' He sought jobs as a freelance photographer in 1973 and later contributed work to the Sygma and Gamma photo agencies. In the late 1970s, he joined Magnum, a professional home for some of the world's top photographers. Advertisement Mr. Salgado stepped away from Magnum in 1994 to establish Amazonia Images with his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado. Four years later, the couple founded the environmental group Instituto Terra, which seeks to restore stretches of Brazil's southeastern Atlantic Forest threatened by development. Mr. Salgado increasingly turned his lens on nature - drawing close enough to photograph the armor-like skin on a marine iguana in the Galapagos and, other times, pulled back for vistas such as a river through the Alaskan wilderness and the sculpted curves of Antarctic icebergs. An iceberg between Paulet and South Shetland islands off Antarctica, shown in a scene from "The Salt of the Earth." Courtesy of (c) Sebastiao Salgado In his 'Amazonia' series, Mr. Salgado traveled across the rainforest, taking portraits of Indigenous people and chronicling the power of the natural world such as towering clouds, appearing in his photos the color of forged steel, rising above the forest canopy. In a private nature reserve, he and his wife planted more than 300 species of trees as part of a rewilding. As the trees grew, birds and insects returned. The tree roots held back erosion. 'Although we were amazed at how nature can fight back, we began to get worried about the threat to the whole planet,' Mr. Salgado told the British Journal of Photography in 2013. 'There is a strange idea that nature and humanity are different but in fact this separation poses a great threat to humanity,' he added. 'We think we can control nature, but it's easy to forget that we need it for our survival.' Manda Yawanawá, from the village of Escondido. Rio Gregório Indigenous Territory, State of Acre, Brazil, 2016 © Sebastião Salgado © Sebastião Salgado, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Jr. was born in Aimorés, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais north of Rio de Janeiro, on Feb. 8, 1944. His family operated a cattle ranch. Advertisement In 1964, the Brazilian military seized control of the government in a coup that ousted President João Goulart. As the ruling junta waged crackdowns on dissent, Mr. Salgado and his wife decided to flee. They headed in 1969 to Paris, which would become their main base over the next five decades. 'If a photographer is not there, there's no image. We need to be there,' he told Forbes Brasil. 'We expose ourselves a lot. And that is why it is such an immense privilege.' Among his honors was the Leica Oskar Barnack Awards, which he received twice, and more than 10 World Press Photo awards in categories including news feature and general news. In addition to his wife, he leaves his sons, Juliano and Rodrigo, and two grandchildren. A 2014 documentary on Mr. Salgado's life and work, 'The Salt of the Earth,' was co-directed by Wim Wenders and his son Juliano. Mr. Salgado, an honorary degree recipient, took a picture during a Harvard Commencement ceremony in Cambridge in 2022. Mary Schwalm/Associated Press In a memorial ceremony in Brazil's capital, Brasília, the country's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, led a minute of silence and called Mr. Salgado's photographs 'a wake-up call for the conscience of all humanity.' During an interview with the Guardian last year, Mr. Salgado asked: 'Why should the poor world be uglier than the rich world? The light here is the same as there. The dignity here is the same as there.' Mount Roraima, State of Roraima, Brazil, 2018 © Sebastião Salgado © Sebastião Salgado, courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery Material from The New York Times was used in this obituary.
