A recent art photography exhibition, dubbed  Amazon, is currently on display at Somerset House in London, which brings together two remarkable, distinct bodies of photography to highlight the plight of the Amazonian rainforest and the people living within it. Thus, the work of Brazilian Sebastião Salgado depicts the virgin beauty of the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world, while Swedish photographer Per Anders Pettersson chose to show the less serene side.

Salgado’s photo from below shows a largely unspoiled region in the state of Amazonas in north-west Brazil, part of his ongoing project called Genesis, in which he tries to capture the pristine beauty of the Amazon and its inhabitants in black and white.

© Sebastiao Salgado

In total opposition, yet still of a retched beauty, Pettersson’s photograph shows a huge heavily deforested area of the rain forest. The photographer captured the sight on 21 June this year,when  he flew over the Amazonian rainforest. What’s sad, maybe even stupid if you will, is that much of the deforestation was made to clear way for farmland. The problem is that the soil there is practically unusable, which results in poor crops.

© Per-Anders Pettersson