Dissemination
Sharing and publishing information comes at ease due to the capabilities provided to society by the Internet. Independent news organizations, personal blogs, and even Facebook profiles have been used and created to to share photographs, either personal or politically charged.
The dissemination of environmental photographs over the Internet has contributed largely to the modern environmental movement. Materials like newsletters, email campaigns, and online news articles have incorporated photography to grab attention and strengthen the message.
There are even apps that facilitate environmental awareness through photographs; National Geographic has an Instagram that posts pictures from photographers on assignments all over the world. All of these photographs contain a description that outlines the assignment, and why it is important for the photographer to capture it.
Image Event Theory
Once image-related new media began to develop, and the dissemination of those images in the 70s and 80s became a reality, Kevin DeLuca’s proposed image event theory came about. DeLuca used the organizations Greenpeace and Earth First! as examples in Image Events, the Public Sphere, and Argumentative Practice: The Case of Radical Environmental Groups. DeLuca defines image events as “staged acts of protest intended for media dissemination.” This is an example of a more aggressive and expressive style of photography.
Salgado’s Photography
Salgado has been featured in many articles and exhibitions that have drawn attention to his photography, and he is one among many photographers who has brought environmental preservation into the public eye. It is interesting to note that Salgado does not have an Instagram, which could be considered today’s most permeating photography app. He does have a Twitter with over 13,000 followers, which is focused solely on the Genesis project.
Keeping with his old-fashioned ideals, upon Genesis’ completion Salgado published selections in hardcover book form, separating his expedition into five “chapters:” Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Northern Spaces, and Amazonia and Pantanal.
Through all of the media attention garnered by his photographic expedition, Salgado was able to bring awareness to his audience regarding his environmental organization, Instituto Terra. This organization is what inspired him to photograph Genesis in the first place.
Implications
Sebastiao Salgado is re-grasping photography as an expression of realism, of capturing the natural. In a time when photography has became an industry with an overabundance of tools for enhancement and modification, he is appreciating the foundational. Susan Sontag, in her essay On Photography, says “photography is essentially an act of nonintervention.” Photographers are the ones who take photos of the action. Salgado, however, is changing that idea, in a less aggressive style than DeLuca’s defined image event theory defines. With his Genesis project, he is permeating the idea that photographers can’t intervene and inspiring people to appreciate and protect the world around us.
Photographic New Media;Capturing the Environment 