Customer Reviews

Sahel: The End of the Road (Series in Contemporary Photography)

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In 1984-1985 approximately one million people died as a result of a severe famine in the Sahel region of Africa (includes parts of Chad, Ethiopia, Mali, and Sudan). Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado spent many months shooting the disaster and "Sahel: The End of the Road" is the remarkable result of his efforts. The photos, all in black and white, are art in the most meaningful sense. Salgado's images grab you by the throat and pull you into the dizzying mix of horror, pain, love, hope and struggle that exists within a crisis like this.

I suspect that some may criticize Salgado's work for being too good. His photographs are so haunting and dramatic that they arguably could be seen as exploitive. His subjects, starving people, could be mistaken for actors on Hollywood sets precisely designed to drag emotions from viewers. If Stephen Spielberg did a famine movie to match "Schindler's List", for example, it probably would look a lot like Salgado's book. I imagine critics thinking that famine is not fiction; it's real and it's ugly. But Salgado's images are not staged. This obviously was life, death and the in-between as it occurred before his eyes. His choice of black and white film and his talent for seeing, framing and capturing spectacular shots are hardly crimes. He is a great photographer and he did what he does. One cannot blame him for preferring to apply his talents out on the jagged edge of human misery rather than some Paris runway or football match. "Sahel: The End of the Road" is not poverty pornography. I am very sensitive to the issue of extreme poverty yet I did not close this book with a feeling of disgust, rather I felt more aware, more human and more determined to care.

Back in 1984, during the height of that terrible famine, images on CNN and the BBC forced the western world to cringe in horror. Some turned away; some tried to help. (Remember "Live Aid" and the hit song, "We are the World"?) Politicians delivered determined speeches, preachers prayed, and the public agreed that mass starvation was not something the modern world should allow to happen. Then, of course, nothing meaningful was done to end global hunger or prevent future famines. Today, nearly a quarter of a century after the famine that Salgado photographed, more than 800 million people do not have enough food. Every day more than 16,000 children die from hunger. That's one child dying every five seconds. Buying this book, by the way, does provide some direct help as a portion of profits are given to Doctors Without Borders, an organization that provides medical aid to people in the developing world.

The true horror of Salgado's book is not that it serves as a record of that terrible famine that occurred 24 years ago. This is not a mere collection of snapshots, past moments frozen forever by a camera. No, more than anything, Salgado's work is a mirror that reflects a current and continuing horror that we in the West seem to find acceptable.
I highly recommend this book. It may not be the happiest book you will ever own but that is no reason not to experience the work of Salgado. As a human you have an obligation to at least look at the real world we inhabit. Don't turn away. Look, and see humanity for what it really is.

For those who feel the desire or need to help improve global hunger in some way, I suggest visiting [...] and making a donation. There is a convenient page on the site that accommodates credit card transactions. A few of your dollars won't stop hunger or change the world but it may save a child or two. And that's not a bad start.

--Guy P. Harrison, author of

Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know About Our Biological Diversity

and

50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God

One of the most potent books on the human experience. I got a lump in my throat while viewing this collection of prints. Sebastiao Salgado is a master at using value to capture shape and texture in his subject matter.

Sebastiao Salgado is pure genius when it comes to juxtaposing great subject matter with god-awesome composition. This book is definitely worth the price for those of you who really want to learn good photography. Every time I flip through the book, I learn something new. Great buy!

There are only a handful of photographic projects that really changed the way the world reacts.
In the mid-eighties of the 20th century a disaster stroke Africa - drought and famine killed hundreds of thousands of people.
But the world stood silent, mostly due to unawareness of the disaster.

Then came Salgado.
After more than a year in the Sahel region, Sebastiao Salgado returned with shocking images the world (apparently) was not ready to see at that time.
Still, he eventually managed to publish this book in Europe, a book which became one of the most provocative and controversial pieces of documentary work at the time.
Salgado, in this book, presents slow decay and death, children mortality and infants starvation.
Yet, the pictures are artistically beautiful and almost touches divine perfection in a way.
At various occasions, Salgado was accused in inhumanity for his ability to take these pictures, the way he perfectly composed a frame of a dying young woman while her breath slowly evaporate from her being.

While looking at these images, one can easily relate to this argument: "How can he take such pictures and not helping these poor people?"
Well, think again. The awareness of the western world to humanitarian disasters as such is there thanks to Salgado and his followers.

This is a 'must have' book for every documentary photography enthusiast, a piece in the history of photography.

Dotan Goor-Arye

The book Sahel is a great lesson of life, the photographer Sebastiao Salgado in it can show the world what is really the rulers of poverty and contempt. We should look at each photo and bringing to us all that she represents, and oh yes we try to make ourselves a better world.

The book "Sahel: The End of the Road" is a rare example that shows how can a photojournalist produce excellent fine art pictures!!!

I think Sebastiao Salgado is a great photographer. All the black and white pictures are in duotone color, which make them look very professional. Something this book has is that you can see through people and at the same time look to a picture with great composition, so you can feel the picture and at the same time admire it's appearance. I just think the pictures are too sad for me, you can see the real people suffering so much.

I was keen to obtain this book for my son, but was aware that copies were not easily obtainable. I was thrilled to locate it on Amazon and then to receive it well ahead of the estimated time frame. The condition was excellent as described, and they arrived very well packaged. Thank you

As always hapeens with Sebastiao Salgado, you can see really good pictures in this book, but they are really hard pictures and sometimes it's difficult to see this book. It shows the reality of Sahel, which is forgotten by occidental people and this book makes to think about it.