Discover the earth’s raw beauty through the lens of Sebastião Salgado

Discover the earth’s raw beauty through the lens of Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado. (Image: Dave Gillespie)

The Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado made his name with stunning images that document humanity’s devastating footprint on the natural world. Now he’s gone in a more optimistic direction with his latest project, Genesis. Travelling by boat, bush plane and hot-air balloon, Salgado visited 32 countries over eight years to capture the raw beauty of untouched—and, in many cases, un-photographed—mountains, oceans and deserts. At A Fragile Beauty, his ongoing exhibition at Nicholas Metivier Gallery, he showcases gelatin silver prints that feel more like chrome-infused paintings than true-to-life photographs: a colony of penguins playfully parading down an icy slide, a timid leopard stooping by the side of a lake and the claw of an iguana stretched out on a rock like a baby’s foot. The works may not be as damning as Salgado’s earlier images, but their message—one of hope—is just as affecting. Click through the image gallery for a look.

To Feb. 28. Nicholas Metivier Gallery, 451 King St. W., 416-205-9000, metiviergallery.com.