No estic segur que cadascuna de les persones que avui estàn aquí estiguin familiaritzades amb les meves fotografies. Vull començar ensenyant-vos unes quantes fotografies i després parlaré.
I'm not sure that every person here is familiar with my pictures. I want to start to show just a few pictures to you, and after I'll speak.
Us he d'explicar una mica de la meva història, perquè parlarem sobre ella durant el meu discurs. Vaig néixer el 1944 a Brazil, quan Brazil encara no tenia una economia de mercat. Vaig néixer a una granja, un 50% de la qual era [i encara és] un bosc pluvial. Un lloc meravellós. Vivia amb ocells increïbles, animals increïbles, Em banyava en petits rius, amb els seus caimans. Unes 35 families vivien en aquesta granja, i tot el que produïem a la granja, ho consumiem. Molt poques coses anaven al mercat. Una vegada a l'any, la única cosa que anava al mercat era el bestiar que produïem, i feiem viatges d'uns 45 dies per poder arribar a l'escorxador, portant milers de caps de bestiar, i uns 20 dies per tornar a la nostra granja.
I must speak to you a little bit of my history, because we'll be speaking on this during my speech here. I was born in 1944 in Brazil, in the times that Brazil was not yet a market economy. I was born on a farm, a farm that was more than 50 percent rainforest [still]. A marvelous place. I lived with incredible birds, incredible animals, I swam in our small rivers with our caimans. It was about 35 families that lived on this farm, and everything that we produced on this farm, we consumed. Very few things went to the market. Once a year, the only thing that went to the market was the cattle that we produced, and we made trips of about 45 days to reach the slaughterhouse, bringing thousands of head of cattle, and about 20 days traveling back to reach our farm again.
Quan tenia 15 anys, va ser necessary que abandonés aquest lloc i anés a un poble una mica més gran ―molt més gran― on vaig fer la segona part dels meus estudis d'educació secundària. Allà, vaig aprendre coses diferents. Brasil començava a urbanitzar-se, a industrialitzar-se, i jo vaig conèixer la política. Em vaig tornar una mica radical, Era membre dels partits d'esquerres, i em vaig tornar un activista. Vaig anar a la universitat per convertir-me en economista. Vaig fer un Màster en Economia.
When I was 15 years old, it was necessary for me to leave this place and go to a town a little bit bigger -- much bigger -- where I did the second part of secondary school. There I learned different things. Brazil was starting to urbanize, industrialize, and I knew the politics. I became a little bit radical, I was a member of leftist parties, and I became an activist. I [went to] university to become an economist. I [did] a master's degree in economics.
I la cosa més important de la meva vida també va passar en aquell moment. Vaig conèixer una noia increïble que va convertir-se en la meva millor amiga de tota la vida, i la meva sòcia en tot el que he fet fins ara, la meva dona, Lélia Wanick Salgado.
And the most important thing in my life also happened in this time. I met an incredible girl who became my lifelong best friend, and my associate in everything that I have done till now, my wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado.
Brasil es va radicalitzar molt. Vam lluitar molt en contra de la dictadura, en un moment, havíem d'escollir entre: Anar a la clandestinitat amb armes a la mà, o bé abandonar Brasil. Érem massa joves, i la nostra organització va creure que era millor que sortíssim del país, i vam anar a França, on vaig fer un doctorat en economia, Léila va esdevenir arquitecte. Jo vaig treballar després per un banc d'inversions. Vam fer molts viatges, vam finançar tasques de desenvolupament, i projectes econòmics a Àfrica amb el World Bank.
Brazil radicalized very strongly. We fought very hard against the dictatorship, in a moment it was necessary to us: Either go into clandestinity with weapons in hand, or leave Brazil. We were too young, and our organization thought it was better for us to go out, and we went to France, where I did a PhD in economics, Léila became an architect. I worked after for an investment bank. We made a lot of trips, financed development, economic projects in Africa with the World Bank.
I un dia, la fotografia va envair la meva vida. I em vaig tornar un fotògraf, vaig abadonar-ho tot i em vaig convertir en fotògraf, i vaig començar a fer fotografia que fos important per a mi. Moltes persones em diuen que sóc un fotoperiodista, que sóc un fotògraf antropòleg, que sóc un fotògraf activista. Però vaig fer molt més que això. Vaig escollir la fotografia com a vida. Vaig viure totalment dins de la fotografia fent projectes a llarg termini, i vull mostrar-vos unes quantes fotografies; de nou, veureu l'interior dels projectes socials en els quals vaig participar, vaig publicar molts llibres sobre aquestes fotografies, però només us ensenyaré unes quantes ara.
And one day photography made a total invasion in my life. I became a photographer, abandoned everything and became a photographer, and I started to do the photography that was important for me. Many people tell me that you are a photojournalist, that you are an anthropologist photographer, that you are an activist photographer. But I did much more than that. I put photography as my life. I lived totally inside photography doing long term projects, and I want to show you just a few pictures of -- again, you'll see inside the social projects, that I went to, I published many books on these photographs, but I'll just show you a few ones now.
En els anys 90, des de 1994 fins al 2000, Vaig fotografiar una història anomenada "Migrations" (Migracions). Es va convertir en un llibre. Es va convertir en un espectacle.
In the '90s, from 1994 to 2000, I photographed a story called Migrations. It became a book. It became a show.
Però durant el temps que vaig fotografiar aquesta història, Estava passant per un moment molt difícil de la meva vida, bàsicament a Rwanda. A Rwanda, vaig veure una brutalitat total. Vaig veure milers de morts cada dia. Vaig perdre la meva fe en l'espècie humana. Vaig creure que era impossible que visquéssim més anys i vaig començar a ser atacat pel meu particular Staphylococcus. Vaig començar a patir infeccions per tot el meu cos. Quan feia l'amor amb la meva dona, cap esperma sortia de mi. Tenia sang. Vaig anar a veure un metge amic meu a Paris, i li vaig dir que estava completament malalt. Em va fer un examen llarg, i em va dir, "Sebastian, no estàs malalt, la pròstata està perfecta. El que passa és, que vas veure tants morts que tu mateix t'estàs morint. Has de parar. Para. Has de parar perquè, si no ho fas, moriràs.
But during the time that I was photographing this, I lived through a very hard moment in my life, mostly in Rwanda. I saw in Rwanda total brutality. I saw deaths by thousands per day. I lost my faith in our species. I didn't believe that it was possible for us to live any longer, and I started to be attacked by my own Staphylococcus. I started to have infection everywhere. When I made love with my wife, I had no sperm that came out of me; I had blood. I went to see a friend's doctor in Paris, told him that I was completely sick. He made a long examination, and told me, "Sebastian, you are not sick, your prostate is perfect. What happened is, you saw so many deaths that you are dying. You must stop. Stop. You must stop because on the contrary, you will be dead."
I vaig prendre la decisió de parar. Jo estava molt molest amb la fotografia, amb tot en el món, i vaig prendre la decisió de tornar a on vaig néixer. Va ser una gran coincidència. Va ser el moment en què els meus pares es van tornar molt vells. Tinc set germanes. Jo sóc l'únic home en la meva familia, i van prendre junts la decisió de transferir la terra dels meus pares a la Léila i a mi. Quan vam rebre aquesta terra, estava tan morta com jo. Quan jo era un nen, més del 50% era un bosc pluvial. Quan vam rebre la terra, menys del 50% era bosc pluvial. com en tota la meva regió. Per afavorir el desenvolupament, desenvolupament de Brasil, vam destruir molt el nostre bosc. Com ho vau fer aquí als Estats Units, o vostè a l'Índia, a tot arreu en aquest planeta. Per construir el nostre desenvolupament, arribem a una gran contradicció que destruim tot el que ens envolta. Aquesta granja, que tenia milers de caps de bestiar, ja només tenia uns quants centenars, i no sabíem què fer-ne amb ells. I a la Léila se li va ocórrer una idea increïble, una idea boja.
And I made the decision to stop. I was really upset with photography, with everything in the world, and I made the decision to go back to where I was born. It was a big coincidence. It was the moment that my parents became very old. I have seven sisters. I'm one of the only men in my family, and they made together the decision to transfer this land to Léila and myself. When we received this land, this land was as dead as I was. When I was a kid, it was more than 50 percent rainforest. When we received the land, it was less than half a percent rainforest, as in all my region. To build development, Brazilian development, we destroyed a lot of our forest. As you did here in the United States, or you did in India, everywhere in this planet. To build our development, we come to a huge contradiction that we destroy around us everything. This farm that had thousands of head of cattle had just a few hundreds, and we didn't know how to deal with these. And Léila came up with an incredible idea, a crazy idea.
Ella va dir, per què no recuperes la selva que estava aquí abans? Dius que vas néixer en el paradís. Anem a construir una altra vegada el paradís.
She said, why don't you put back the rainforest that was here before? You say that you were born in paradise. Let's build the paradise again.
I vaig anar a veure un bon amic que era enginyer de boscos per a què preparés un projecte per nosaltres, i vam començar. Vam començar a plantar, i aquell primer any vam perdre una gran quantitat d'arbres, el segon any menys, i a poc a poc, a poc a poc aquella terra morta va començar a néixer una altra vegada. Vam començar a plantar centenars de milers d'arbres, només espècies autòctones, només espècies natives, i allà vam construir un ecosistema idèntic al que s'havia destruit, i la vida va començar a tornar d'una manera increïble. Va ser necessari que convertíssim la nostra terra en un parc nacional. Ens vam transformar. Vam retornar aquella terra a la natura. Es va convertir en un parc nacional. Vam crear una institució anomenada "Instituto Terra", i vam construir un gran projecte mediambiental per recaptar diners on fos. Aquí a Los Angeles, a la zona de la badia de San Francisco, es va convertir en deduïble d'impostos als Estats Units. Vam recaptar diners a Espanya, a Itàlia, molt al Brasil. Vam treballar amb moltes empreses al Brasil que van posar diners en aquest projecte, el govern. I la vida va començar a arribar, i jo tenia un gran desig de retornar a la fotografia, de fotografiar una altra vegada. I aquesta vegada, el meu desig era no fotografiar més només un animal que havia fotografiat durant tota la meva vida: nosaltres. Desitjava fotografiar els altres animals, fotografiar els paisatges, fotografiar-nos, però des del començament, quan encara vivíem en equilibri amb la natura. I vaig anar. Vaig començar a principis del 2004, i vaig acabar a finals del 2011. Vam crear una quantitat increïble d'imatges, i el resultat - Lélia va fer el disseny de tots els meus llibres, el disseny de tots els meus espectacles. Ella és la creadora de totes les exhibicions I el que volem amb aquestes imatges és crear un debat sobre el que allò que encara tenim verge en el planeta i el que hem de preservar en aquest planeta si volem viure, tenir un equilibri en la nostra vida. I jo volia veure'ns quan utilitzàvem, sí, els nostres instruments de pedra. Nosaltres encara existim. Vaig anar la setmana passada a la Fundació Índia Nacional Brasilera, i només a l'Amazònia tenim uns 110 grups d'indis que no han estat contactats encara. Hem de protegir el bosc en aquest sentit. I amb aquestes imatges, espero que podem crear informació, un sistema d'informació. Hem intentat fer una nova presentació del planeta, i vull mostrar-vos ara unes quantes imatges d'aquest projecte, si us plau.
And I went to see a good friend that was engineering forests to prepare a project for us, and we started. We started to plant, and this first year we lost a lot of trees, second year less, and slowly, slowly this dead land started to be born again. We started to plant hundreds of thousands of trees, only local species, only native species, where we built an ecosystem identical to the one that was destroyed, and the life started to come back in an incredible way. It was necessary for us to transform our land into a national park. We transformed. We gave this land back to nature. It became a national park. We created an institution called Instituto Terra, and we built a big environmental project to raise money everywhere. Here in Los Angeles, in the Bay Area in San Francisco, it became tax deductible in the United States. We raised money in Spain, in Italy, a lot in Brazil. We worked with a lot of companies in Brazil that put money into this project, the government. And the life started to come, and I had a big wish to come back to photography, to photograph again. And this time, my wish was not to photograph anymore just one animal that I had photographed all my life: us. I wished to photograph the other animals, to photograph the landscapes, to photograph us, but us from the beginning, the time we lived in equilibrium with nature. And I went. I started in the beginning of 2004, and I finished at the end of 2011. We created an incredible amount of pictures, and the result -- Lélia did the design of all my books, the design of all my shows. She is the creator of the shows. And what we want with these pictures is to create a discussion about what we have that is pristine on the planet and what we must hold on this planet if we want to live, to have some equilibrium in our life. And I wanted to see us when we used, yes, our instruments in stone. We exist yet. I was last week at the Brazilian National Indian Foundation, and only in the Amazon we have about 110 groups of Indians that are not contacted yet. We must protect the forest in this sense. And with these pictures, I hope that we can create information, a system of information. We tried to do a new presentation of the planet, and I want to show you now just a few pictures of this project, please.
Bé, això —(aplaudiments)—. Gràcies. Moltes gràcies.
Well, this — (Applause) — Thank you. Thank you very much.
És per això que ens cal lluitar dur per tal de mantenir-ho en l'estat actual. Però hi ha una altra part que cal reconstruir junts, per construir les nostres societats, la nostra família moderna de societats, ens trobem en un punt on ja no podem tornar enrere. Però creem una contradicció increïble. Per a construir tot això, destruïm molt. El nostre bosc al Brasil, aquell bosc antic que era la mida de Califòrnia, avui s'ha destruït al 93%. Aquí, a la costa oest, heu destruït el vostre bosc. Per aquí, no? Els boscos de sequoies han desaparescut. S'han anat molt ràpid, han desaparegut. Venint l'altre dia des d'Atlanta, aquí, fa dos dies, vaig volar sobre deserts que nosaltres hem fet, que hem provocat amb les nostres mans. L'Índia no té més arbres. Espanya no té més arbres.
This is what we must fight hard to hold like it is now. But there is another part that we must together rebuild, to build our societies, our modern family of societies, we are at a point where we cannot go back. But we create an incredible contradiction. To build all this, we destroy a lot. Our forest in Brazil, that antique forest that was the size of California, is destroyed today 93 percent. Here, on the West Coast, you've destroyed your forest. Around here, no? The redwood forests are gone. Gone very fast, disappeared. Coming the other day from Atlanta, here, two days ago, I was flying over deserts that we made, we provoked with our own hands. India has no more trees. Spain has no more trees.
I cal reconstruir aquests boscos. Són l'essència de la nostra vida, aquests boscos. Hem de respirar. L'única fàbrica capaç de transformar CO2 en oxigen, són els boscos. L'única màquina capaç de capturar el carboni que s'està produïnt, sempre, fins i tot si podem reduir-lo, en tot el que fem, produïm CO2, són els arbres. Vaig fer la pregunta… fa tres o quatre setmanes, vam veure als diaris milions de peixos que moren a Noruega. Manca d'oxigen en l'aigua. Em vaig fer a mi mateix la pregunta, si per un moment, no ens faltés oxigen per a totes les espècies d'animals, la nostra inclosa… això seria molt complicat per a nosaltres.
And we must rebuild these forests. That is the essence of our life, these forests. We need to breathe. The only factory capable to transform CO2 into oxygen, are the forests. The only machine capable to capture the carbon that we are producing, always, even if we reduce them, everything that we do, we produce CO2, are the trees. I put the question -- three or four weeks ago, we saw in the newspapers millions of fish that die in Norway. A lack of oxygen in the water. I put to myself the question, if for a moment, we will not lack oxygen for all animal species, ours included -- that would be very complicated for us.
Per al sistema d'aigua, els arbres són essencials. Us donaré un petit exemple que entendreu molt fàcilment. Vosaltres, gent feliç amb molt de cabell al cap, Si us dutxeu, necessiteu dues o tres hores per a què el vostre cabell s'assequi si no utilitzeu un secador. Jo, en un minut, està sec. El mateix passa amb els arbres. Els arbres són el cabell del nostre planeta. Quan tens la pluja en un lloc on no hi ha arbres, en pocs minuts, l'aigua arriba al torrent d'aigua, porta sòl, destruint la nostra font d'aigua, destruint els rius, i cap humitat per retenir. Quan es tenen arbres, el sistema d'arrels manté l'aigua. Totes les branques dels arbres, les fulles que cauen creen una zona humida, i es necessiten mesos i mesos sota l'aigua, van pels rius, i mantenen la nostra font, mantenen els nostres rius. Això és el més important, quan ens imaginem que necessitem l'aigua per a totes les activitats de la vida.
For the water system, the trees are essential. I'll give you a small example that you'll understand very easily. You happy people that have a lot of hair on your head, if you take a shower, it takes you two or three hours to dry your hair if you don't use a dryer machine. Me, one minute, it's dry. The same with the trees. The trees are the hair of our planet. When you have rain in a place that has no trees, in just a few minutes, the water arrives in the stream, brings soil, destroying our water source, destroying the rivers, and no humidity to retain. When you have trees, the root system holds the water. All the branches of the trees, the leaves that come down create a humid area, and they take months and months under the water, go to the rivers, and maintain our source, maintain our rivers. This is the most important thing, when we imagine that we need water for every activity in life.
Vull mostrar-vos ara, per acabar, unes quantes fotografies que per a mi són molt importants en aquesta direcció. Recordeu que us he dit, que quan vaig rebre la granja dels meus pares allò era el meu paradís, allò era la granja. Terra completament destruïda, erosionada, seca. Però es pot veure en aquesta foto, que vam començar a construir un centre educatiu que es va convertir en un gran centre pel medi ambient al Brasil. Però veureu una gran quantitat de petites taques en aquesta foto. En cada punt d'aquestes taques, havíem plantat un arbre. Hi ha milers d'arbres. Ara mostraré les fotografies fetes exactament en el mateix lloc. fa dos mesos.
I want to show you now, to finish, just a few pictures that for me are very important in that direction. You remember that I told you, when I received the farm from my parents that was my paradise, that was the farm. Land completely destroyed, the erosion there, the land had dried. But you can see in this picture, we were starting to construct an educational center that became quite a large environmental center in Brazil. But you see a lot of small spots in this picture. In each point of those spots, we had planted a tree. There are thousands of trees. Now I'll show you the pictures made exactly in the same point two months ago.
(Aplaudiments)
(Applause)
Us he dit al principi que era necessari que plantéssim uns 2,5 milions d'arbres d'unes 200 espècies diferents per tal de reconstruir l'ecosistema. I mostraré la meva última imatge. Tenim dos milions d'arbres al terra ara. Estem segrestant unes 100.000 tones de carboni amb aquests arbres.
I told you in the beginning that it was necessary for us to plant about 2.5 million trees of about 200 different species in order to rebuild the ecosystem. And I'll show you the last picture. We are with two million trees in the ground now. We are doing the sequestration of about 100,000 tons of carbon with these trees.
Amics meus, és molt fàcil de fer. Vam fer-ho, no? Per un accident que vaig patir, vam tornar, vam construir un ecosistema. Nosaltres aquí dins l'habitació, crec que tenim la mateixa preocupació, i el model que hem creat al Brasil, el podem transplantar aquí. Es pot aplicar a tot arreu al voltant del món, no? I crec que ho podem fer junts.
My friends, it's very easy to do. We did it, no? By an accident that happened to me, we went back, we built an ecosystem. We here inside the room, I believe that we have the same concern, and the model that we created in Brazil, we can transplant it here. We can apply it everywhere around the world, no? And I believe that we can do it together.
Moltes gràcies.
Thank you very much.
(Aplaudiments)
(Applause)