"Migrations: Humanity in Transition" is the title of a series of photographs by Sebastiao Salgado. The pictures in this series may instill feelings into a viewer that do not necessarily relate to migration or transition but to humanity. There is one picture in particular that portrays such innocence it is impossible to ignore. .
The photograph by Salgado taken in 1996 in Sao Paulo Brazil portrays a rooftop image of crowded infants and toddlers. At first glance this picture may look staged, and even cute to see so many babies so close together. This picture may almost be one of Anne Geddes photographs. Then you read the caption and suddenly realize that this is a photograph of "abandoned babies playing on the roof of a FEBEM center". You keep reading and notice that the caption also says "Some 430 children live here, 35 percent of whom were found abandoned on city streets; the others were delivered at the center by parents no longer able to care for them." .
The children in this black and white photograph are captioned to be playing, yet there are no smiles visible on any of the babies faces. Most of the babies are lying down on the ground while a few struggle to find some place to crawl to. The babies are so crowded that if they attempt to crawl in any direction they would instantly run into each other. You start to discern the harsh fate that has befallen on these children. .
Children have been abandoned in the past by parents, put into orphanages to live with other unfortunate children. There are still orphaned children today. We have found new ways to help support this cause and conditions of these institutes yet, these problems still exist. Some problems may never disappear from our history; they may never change but are there to be constant reminders of our human nature.
This picture of these abandoned children invokes that harsh reality why some of us may run away from our responsibilities.