404始建于上世纪五十年代，它在中国的地图上没有任何标记，也没有名字，只有一个代号叫做「404」。鼎盛时期有大约有五万人在这个不到一平方公里的地方工作生活。
404是中国最早、最大的核技术生产科研基地。404的创建，实现了中国核武器从无到有的历史性突破，为中国一九六四年与一九六七年成功爆炸第一颗原子弹、第一颗氢弹，为提高中国的国际外交地位做出了做出了无可替代的历史性贡献。
404虽小，生活区中公检法等行政机关一应俱全，设有公安局、土地局、教育局、中级人民法院等行政机构。小小的404拥有相当于地级行政区的管理权限。
404与世隔绝。这里地处荒漠，自然环境恶劣，只有骆驼草和石头是自然产物，这里的每一棵树都是经过人工种植的。
当年建设之初从中国各地抽调了一批各行各业的精英份子来到这里，404汇集了当时全国顶尖的核专家、技工、厨师、教师、医生等。他们亲手在荒漠上建起了这座城市，之后便再没有离开，繁衍生息半个世纪，最后也埋葬在了这里。
我已是在此生活的第三代人。这组照片里的每一个场景都与我以及我身边的人息息相关：有我的幼儿园，有我上过的小学，我的父母也曾就读于同一所小学；有我们每周都去的公共浴池，那里曾是一个重要社交场所，还有我亲手种下的两颗白杨。这里是我们的家，我们的生活发生的地方。
经过了半个世纪后，人们从这里迁离，留下了这些空空的场景，待我再次回来，站在镜头后面，看着它们，恍如隔世。

“In Genesis, my camera allowed nature to speak to me. And it was my privilege to listen.” —Sebastião Salgado
On a very fortuitous day in 1970, 26-year-old Sebastião Salgado held a camera for the first time. When he looked through the viewfinder, he experienced a revelation: suddenly life made sense. From that day onward—though it took years of hard work before he had the experience to earn his living as a photographer—the camera became his tool for interacting with the world. Salgado, who “always preferred the chiaroscuro palette of black-and-white images,” shot very little color in his early career before giving it up completely.
Raised on a farm in Brazil, Salgado possessed a deep love and respect for nature; he was also particularly sensitive to the ways in which human beings are affected by their often devastating socio-economic conditions. Of the myriad works Salgado has produced in his acclaimed career, three long-term projects stand out: Workers (1993), documenting the vanishing way of life of manual laborers across the world, Migrations (2000), a tribute to mass migration driven by hunger, natural disasters, environmental degradation and demographic pressure, and this new opus, Genesis, the result of an epic eight-year expedition to rediscover the mountains, deserts and oceans, the animals and peoples that have so far escaped the imprint of modern society—the land and life of a still-pristine planet. “Some 46% of the planet is still as it was in the time of genesis,” Salgado reminds us. “We must preserve what exists.” The Genesis project, along with the Salgados’ Instituto Terra, are dedicated to showing the beauty of our planet, reversing the damage done to it, and preserving it for the future.
Over 30 trips—travelled by foot, light aircraft, seagoing vessels, canoes, and even balloons, through extreme heat and cold and in sometimes dangerous conditions—Salgado created a collection of images showing us nature, animals, and indigenous peoples in breathtaking beauty. Mastering the monochrome with an extreme deftness to rival the virtuoso Ansel Adams, Salgado brings black-and-white photography to a new dimension; the tonal variations in his works, the contrasts of light and dark, recall the works of Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Georges de La Tour.
What does one discover in Genesis? The animal species and volcanoes of the Galápagos; penguins, sea lions, cormorants, and whales of the Antarctic and South Atlantic; Brazilian alligators and jaguars; African lions, leopards, and elephants; the isolated Zo’é tribe deep in the Amazon jungle; the Stone Age Korowai people of West Papua; nomadic Dinka cattle farmers in Sudan; Nenet nomads and their reindeer herds in the Arctic Circle; Mentawai jungle communities on islands west of Sumatra; the icebergs of the Antarctic; the volcanoes of Central Africa and the Kamchatka Peninsula; Saharan deserts; the Negro and Juruá rivers in the Amazon; the ravines of the Grand Canyon; the glaciers of Alaska... and beyond. Having dedicated so much time, energy, and passion to the making of this work, Salgado likens Genesis to “my love letter to the planet.”
Whereas the limited Collector’s Edition is conceived like a large-format portfolio that meanders across the planet, this unlimited book presents a selection of photographs arranged in five chapters geographically: Planet South, Sanctuaries, Africa, Northern Spaces, Amazonia and Pantanal.
Each in its own way, this book and the Collector’s edition—both edited and designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado—pay homage to Salgado’s triumphant and unparalleled Genesis project.
The world premiere of Sebastião Salgado: Genesis will open at the Natural History Museum in London on April 11, 2013. The exhibition builds on the Museum’s reputation as the home of the planet’s best nature photography. For further information and to book tickets please go to www.nhm.ac.uk/salgado. Additionally, from May 14th, a special portfolio of plantinum prints from Genesis will be shown at Phillips Howick Place gallery in London.
Worldwide venues for the Genesis exhibition:
The Natural History Museum, London, UK - April 11 through September 8, 2013
The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada - May 2 through September 2, 2013
Ara Pacis Museum, Rome, Italy - May 15 through September 15, 2013
Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - May 28 through August 25, 2013
Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland - September 21, 2013 through January 12, 2014
La Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), Paris, France - September 25, 2013 through January 5, 2014
SESC Belenzinho, São Paulo, SP, Brazil - September 9 - November 2013