Refugees Hiding Under Trees to Avoid Government Airplane Surveillance, Tigray, Ethiopia

Artist Sebastião Salgado (Brazilian, born 1944)

CultureBrazilian

Date1986

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 13 13/16 × 20 1/8 in. (35.1 × 51.1 cm)
Overall, Support: 19 5/8 × 23 1/4 in. (49.8 × 59.1 cm)
Overall, Mat: 24 × 30 in. (61 × 76.2 cm)

InscribedSigned on verso: SS 23-39

Credit LineMuseum purchase, in memory of Alice R. and Sol. B. Frank, and gift of Drs. Lea and Nancy Wilds

Object number2000.22.1

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a gelatin silver print. Sunlight shines through the top of trees; people have gathered around the very large trees.

Label TextSebastião Salgado Brazilian (b. 1944) Refugees Hiding Under Trees to Avoid Government Airplane Surveillance, Tigray, Ethiopia, 1986 Gelatin-silver print Museum purchase, gift of Drs. Lea and Nancy Wilds, and in memory of Alice B. and Sol R. Frank 2000.22.1 Sebastião Salgado's photographs come out of the humanistic tradition founded by the Farm Security Administration photographers. People such as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, and Ben Shahn made documentary photographs that were used to improve the lives of those depicted. Photographers working for LIFE and LOOK magazines pictorially refined this tradition. Salgado made these images while working primarily on assignment. Because they are so beautifully poetic, his images transcend the magazine and are now shown on museum walls. Edited By: DS Edited Date: 2006 Approved By: DS Approval Date: 01/31/2007ProvenanceChrysler Museum of Art Purchase, 2000. Exhibition History"Silver Images: The Photography Collection at 25," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., November 5, 2003 - August 2004. Published ReferencesSebastião Salgado; Eduardo Galeano and Fred Ritchin. AN UNCERTAIN GRACE: PHOTOGRAPHS BY SEBASTIÃO SALGADO. New York, N.Y.: Aperture. 1990.