The Time magazine spread included two gripping photos of refugees from Rwanda, but did not mention the U.N. Security Council's refusal to send in peacekeeping troops to prevent the imminent mass slaughter in April 1994. Salgado's picture of forsaken little children, with the modern Sao Paulo skyline behind them, is brilliant. Yet the context afforded the photos was paltry. Readers might only guess at how the insatiable amassing of wealth correlates to such destitution. To be vain can be glorious.
Analysts say that visual images, in print and on screen, routinely overpower any words.
Once in a while, in the media world, the eyes of the poor are peering at us, captured through a photographer's lens. We can see them.