MATERIALIDADE E NARRATIVA VISUAL DA SÉRIE FOTOGRÁFICA GOLD, PUBLICADA NO FOTOLIVRO TRABALHADORES, DE SEBASTIÃO SALGADO

Abstract

This paper analyzes Sebastião Salgado's photographic series Gold, published in the photobook Trabalhadores (Workers, 2006), through the methodological framework of the semiotics of photography. The analysis considers both the textual level of the images and the material level of the book as an editorial support-object. The materiality of the photobook, in its dimensions, weight, paper quality, and sequential reading, actively participates in the production of meaning, conferring temporality, narrative rhythm, and a status of cultural prestige. Therefore, the photobook functions as a material structure that supports the image narrative and organizes the reader's sensitive experience. Trabalhadores is examined within a panorama of other photobooks that also sought to produce large photographic discourses, often designated in the field of photography as visual archaeologies. Salgado's publication constructs, through images, critical commentary on the theme of human labor in mining. Finally, the Gold series is understood as an imagetic narrative that articulates social denunciation, authorial style, and material form in a sensitive reading experience, establishing a dialogue with the reader's body.