:: Free Traveler ::

The legendary photojournalist journeys across Africa’s oldest desert and discovers a window into the dawn of time

WHEN SEBASTIÃO SALGADO TRAVELED TO the desolate wilds of Namibia late last year, the world-renowned photo-journalist traversed the country’s Skeleton Coast and shifting sands by foot, jeep, plane and hot-air balloon.

He had come to the arid terrain — not far from where humans first walked upright — as part of “Genesis,” his eight-year collaboration with ROLLING STONE, to document what the planet looked like before it was overrun by man. Although the land took its present geographic shape more than 135 million years ago, its vast deserts are forever mutating: Winds constantly drive the dunes higher and higher, until they crest and collapse on their sheltered sides in an avalanche of sand.

“It is so pure an environment,” Salgado says. “Being there is to be in contact with the beginning. We were there for months, and sometimes we spent ten days and would not pass a single car — nothing. We were completely isolated.”

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