In 1973, Sebastiao Salgado was an economic...

In 1973, Sebastiao Salgado was an economic adviser to developing nations when he discovered the power of the camera to document the world’s “invisible people,” such as the victims of a famine in Africa, sugar cane cutters in Cuba and gold miners in Brazil.

In Salgado’s penetrating, beautiful black-and-white images, which are featured in an exhibit at the G. Ray Hawkins Gallery through Feb. 11, his subjects are captured with a strange nobility--dwellers in troubled lands brought to life under the artist’s compassionate eye. They are cumulative portraits: These are people Salgado knows well after living with them for extended periods of time.

Salgado’s shots of workers fighting to stop the fiery carnage in Kuwait recently caught the world’s attention. Through these pictures, one steps into an otherworldliness, where the whites of eyes are juxtaposed against blackened skin, and exhausted bodies are highlighted and sculpted by the men’s oil-slicked clothing.

His famine pictures, considered too graphic by some, are also included in this exhibit, along with the lives of rural people in Latin America and photos showing the end of manual labor throughout the world due to technological developments.

The gallery is located at 910 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica. For information call (213) 394-5558.