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The Natural History Museum is compromised by violent capitalists and Sebastian Selgado is a hypocrite.
The world of patronage and artistic credibility is mired in black and white allegiances to lost causes.
As artists are held up to a higher standard than the causal craftsperson, they are assumed to be serious, unrelenting and above all authentic in whatever cause they champion.
The paragon artist spits at dirty money even if it means dying poor and unknown; as long as their principals are intact then they are be true to their art, and may die uncompromisable.
This may be a naïve position, but almost certainly the correct one. What is art if not naive?
So, when photographer Sebastian Selgado’s recent exhibition of his work Genesis, beautiful photographs capturing disappearing flora and fauna as well as indigenous people in the Amazon Rainforest, was sponsored by the company Vale hackles were raised.
Vale is a mining company that counts among it’s many accolades the coveted title for having “the most contempt for environmental and human rights in the world” awarded by industry watchdog Public Eye.
The indigenous people of the Amazon were directly displaced and their land destroyed by Vale, who created the Belo Monte dam to “ensure energy security” for Brazil.
The Natural History Museum toes they line they were told to tread by the company, spewing laughably prearranged lines that lauded Vale’s commitment to sustainability and renewable energy. Perhaps the Natural History Museum was seeking to create more extinct plants and animals to pad it’s collection?
The more likely scenario is that those running the museum care only about money, and to a company like Vale sponsoring an exhibit is a way to say “look, we know we destroyed thousands of lives, but here is some money and you can look at pictures of those lives we destroyed, we are giving back to the community.”
Museums and their funding is difficult, we must have museums, but no one wants to pay, and they must be paid for. Beyond evolving and living in a socialist utopia, there seems, to these capitalist money hungry hypocrites, no way to make this a reality.
What, then, of the artist? Mr. Selgado has made his career and his money by documenting the disappearing (because of Vale, remember?) Amazonian natives, as well as nature photography in general. The assumption being that Mr. Selgado may perhaps give two fucks about what happens to said natives. This assumption is, sadly, wrong. By taking the money from Vale and not boycotting the show, the museum, and anything connected to the kind of work that destroys the rainforest, Mr. Selgado has proved himself an enemy of the people and the world he propots to care about.
We could take a portrait of Mr. Selgado, looking pensively out of his large house, then reroute a sewer line to flow directly through his living room, destroying everything he owns and everything he knows. Then we could exhibit the photograph at a show paid for by the sewage company that rerouted the line.
His hypocrisy does not make him any less of a photographer, but they do make him a less worthy human being.
John Hutt 