The Spectre of Hope

Best known for "Ways of Seeing," the seminal book and BBC series on art criticism, John Berger is one of the world's leading critics of art and photography. His "Selected Essays," written over nearly 50 years, has just been published (Pantheon Books, 2002).

In THE SPECTRE OF HOPE Sebastịo Salgado joins Berger to pore over Salgado's collection "Migrations." Six years and 43 countries in the making (ranging across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America), "Migrations" contains photographs of people pushed from their homes and traditions to cities and their margins - slums and streets and refugee camps.

Sitting at the kitchen table of Berger's home in the Swiss Alps, their intimate conversation, intercut with photographs from "Migrations," combines a discussion of Salgado's work with a critique of globalization, and a wide-ranging investigation of the power of the image.