Migrations: Humanity in Transition

Internationally renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado, whose book Workers changed forever the image of manual labor around the world, has now turned his attention to the staggering phenomenon of mass migration. In photographs taken over seven years and across more than thirty-five countries, Migrations documents the epic displacement of the world's people at the close of the twentieth century. Wars, natural disasters, environmental degradation, explosive population growth, and the widening gap between rich and poor have resulted in over 100 million international migrants, a number that has doubled in the span of a decade. This extraordinary level of demographic change is unparalleled in human history, and presents profound challenges to the most basic notions of nation, culture, community, and citizenship. The first pictorial survey to extensively chronicle the current global flux of humanity, Migrations follows Latin Americans entering the United States, Jews leaving the former Soviet Union, Africans traveling into Europe, Kosovars fleeing into Albania, and many others. The images address suffering while revealing the profound dignity, courage, and energy of the subjects. With his unique vision and empathy, Salgado gives us a clearer picture of the enormous social and political transformations now occurring in a world divided between excess and need.