The world makes me sad.

Today I’m thinking about two photographers who turn their lens on subject matter that isn’t pretty and yet somehow manage to make appear achingly beautiful. I don’t know what the implications of aestheticizing everything may be, but I do know these photos make me feel all sorts of something.

Sebastiao Salgado is a Brazilian photographer, who studied economics and began traveling the world while working for the International Coffee Organization. He began taking photographs of his trips abroad and decided to change directions and commit fully to photography. Salgado has completed immense series of various aspects of human existence; work, migration. His work bridges the photography genres of fine art and photojournalism seamlessly.

Edward Burtynsky is a Canadian photographer known for his large format landscapes. His photographs represent the latest shift in landscape photography, known as the wasteland. His images depict all the ways man has destroyed the landscape.

I could say more, I should say more, but I can’t find the right words.

Sebastiao Salgado

Edward Burtynsky