The Ecological Citizen: Confronting human supremacy
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Long article
Indigeneity and the ambivalence of eco-cultural imageries: A critical review of Sebastião Salgado’s Genesis
The Ecological Citizen Vol 9 No 1 2026: 76–82 [epub-149]
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ACCESS PDF OF ARTICLEFirst published: 27 January 2026 | PERMANENT URL | DOWNLOAD CITATION IN RIS FORMAT
Abstract
Sebastião Salgado's photographic project Genesis seeks to portray the planet's most 'pristine' landscapes and Indigenous cultures. Through its aesthetic power, this project leads us to examine the temptations of falling into romanticized and dangerous tropes of the 'noble savage' and 'endangered other'. By focusing on the ambivalence in Salgado's portrayal of Indigeneity, his project can be seen as a site of both mourning and transformation: a visual elegy that risks aestheticizing suffering, yet also gestures toward post-anthropocentric modes of responsiveness, poetic memory and embodied ecological responsibility.
Keywords
Ecological living, Environmental humanities, Indigenous culture, Worldviews
