More than those of any other living photographer, Sebastião Salgado's images of the world's poor stand in tribute to the human condition. His transforming photographs bestow dignity on the most isolated and neglected, from famine-stricken refugees in the Sahel to the indigenous peoples of South America. Workers is a global epic that transcends mere imagery to become an affirmation of the enduring spirit of working women and men. The book is an archaeological exploration of the activities that have defined labor from the Stone Age through the Industrial Age, to the present. Divided into six categories--"Agriculture," "Food," "Mining," "Industry," "Oil" and "Construction"--the book unearths layers of visual information to reveal the ceaseless human activity at the core of modern civilization. Extended captions provide a historical and factual framework for the images. "Salgado unveils the pain, the beauty, and the brutality of the world of work on which everything rests," wrote Arthur Miller of this photobook classic, upon its original publication in 1993. "This is a collection of deep devotion and impressive skill." An elegy for the passing of traditional methods of labor and production, Workers delivers a message of endurance and hope.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Even as machines, robots and computers replace workers, Salgado's powerful, striking photographs reveal the backbreaking and unrelenting toil that is still the lot of millions of men and women around the globe. Never preachy or didactic, these 350 duotone images of tea pickers in Rwanda, dam builders in India, steelworkers in France and Ukraine, sugarcane harvesters in Brazil, assembly-line workers in Russia and China, sulfur miners in Indonesia and others, pay tribute to working people who preserve their dignity in the harshest conditions. In the lyrical accompanying essay, Salgado ( An Uncertain Grace ) laments Japan's industrial fishing which decimates fish stocks, France's agricultural policies and the global exploitation of manual laborers who do the bulk of the world's work.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Salgado, an economist by training, documents the unforgettable faces of workers at their jobs around the world. His widely published images of the oil-field firefighters in Kuwait may be the most familiar to U.S. readers. The catalog for a traveling exhibition, this book is divided into six chapters--Agriculture, Food, Mining, Industry, Oil, and Construction--that show the basest realities of work in some of its uncountable forms, from fishing in Spain, to textile factories in Kazakhstan, Eurotunnel construction in France, a slaughterhouse in South Dakota, and gold miners in Brazil. The reader almost never sees a smiling face or evidence of job satisfaction. Instead, this is an iconography of wage-labor toil, alienation, and survival. The location and subject of each related group of images are announced in the table of contents; otherwise, one needs to consult a separate softbound booklet in a pocket in the back, which offers Salgado's facts and statistics about the particular natural resource, geographical area, and type of work pictured. The reproductions here are of superb quality. The winner of numerous international photography awards, Salgado ( An Uncertain Grace , LJ 2/1/91) has renewed the "concerned photographer" genre and produced one of the finest books of this decade. Essential for all art and photography collections.
- Kathleen Collins, New York Transit Museum Archives, Brooklyn
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Kathleen Collins, New York Transit Museum Archives, Brooklyn
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is an astonishing document on both the talents of Sebastiao Salgado and the roughness of some of the worst professions in the world. The book was several years in the making and it shows. A lot of credit goes to Aperture for such a quality print. Your first impression will be of astonishment as you browse through the pictures of one of the top photographers of this century. Then, you'll want to read the small booklet that explains what each picture is. One day I hope someone will print a teaching book of photography with as good pictures as these, but with all the detailed information of how the picture was taken (film, camera, lens, exposure, # of photos discarded, date, time of day & latitude, time spent to take the picture, etc). If there's anything to critize in this book is that no technical information is given at all. But that was the point of it. It is an art book, not a didactic one.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
At first glance this book is very intimidating by size. I was overwhelmed by the amount of photos Salgado took of his subjects, which in this book were the workers around the world. As I flipped through each page I began to think of rather than looking at a book of a photographer's work, it seemed as if I was looking at a photo album dedicated to hard laborers. Each photo is extremely vivid and beautifully shot. In addition, each photo gives the impression that Salgado puts thought and emotion before shooting his subjects. This is apparent by the many angles he shot his subjects and more importantly the extreme close-up shots he had. In many of his pictures Salgado appears to capture not just the action of the subject, but the emotion and story as well. You can't help but sympathize for each worker. Furthermore you start to realize how much the world depends on this type of labor in order to move forward. In a sense, this entire book give a view into all the hard work it takes to create all the luxuries we take granted for.
The entire book itself is very high quality. Each picture is printed clearly and at a large scale to show each detail of Salgado's work. It's also neatly organized rather than photos jumbled everywhere. Photos are separated by the location where they are shot. Moreover, aside from the large scale photos in this book which take an entire spread, there are some fold-out pages that contain smaller photos which give it that "photo album" feel.
This book is evidence of how great of a photographer Sebastiao Salgado is.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
These are some of the most powerful photographs ever made. They are at once disturbing, thought provoking and astonishingly beautiful. Salgado is a genius of the medium. He is one of the very few who has managed to elevate photography to a genuine art form. By comparison, the work of most other contemporary photographers seems like paint-by-numbers dreck.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The best photography book in the last 30 years
I am a part time professional fine art photographer and am convinced that this is the best book of photography produced in the last 30 years. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Daniel M. Katzman
Compassion and the Camera
Sebastião Salgado (born February 8, 1944) is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist, first trained as an economist and worked successfully in that field... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Grady Harp
The best I own.... By far.
This book is by far the best photography book I own.
My first thought when I opened it was that it makes my other books look poor in comparison. Read more
My first thought when I opened it was that it makes my other books look poor in comparison. Read more
Published on May 22, 2010 by Freddo-c
New or used?
I doubted between buying a new or a used book. I took a new one but regret it. Because the packaging is quite poor the corners of the book are slightly damaged and hence the boog... Read more
Published on April 28, 2010 by Hph Waalkens
Perfect photographs, but not quite.
Salgado is divine. He produces the most perfect images out there, in the documentary realm, and this book projects that well. Read more
Published on May 25, 2009 by DOTAN GOOR-ARYE
one of the best photo books I own
Awe inspiring photography as never seen before. The scope of global coverage documenting some of the hardest manual labor in today's industrial age is so raw and powerful. Read more
Published on December 20, 2008 by H. Gschwindt De Gyor
Workers of the world, unite!
Beautiful images, good printing, generous size. What more could you ask for?
I won't bother talking about how good Salgado is. Read more
I won't bother talking about how good Salgado is. Read more
Published on August 24, 2008 by AC&J
Ordered twice, dust jacket damaged.
This review has nothing to do with the contents of this wonderful book - I'm sure you can gather from the other extremely positive reviews the quality of Salgado's work. Read more
Published on July 28, 2008 by Murray Cox
workers: a great work!
The author: a great reporter.
The book: a detailed "story" of manual workers, from Sicily to Cuba and India...
Very good images, very well printed. Read more
The book: a detailed "story" of manual workers, from Sicily to Cuba and India...
Very good images, very well printed. Read more
Published on April 26, 2008 by Guardiola
Truly amazing
Salgado, like Bresson, Smith and Evans goes into the detail the world of WORK, it is an amazing array of images.
Published on March 30, 2008 by N. Johnson
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