Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado
Name	Sebastião Salgado
Caption	Salgado in 2015
Birth date	08 February 1944
Birth place	Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Nationality	Brazilian, French
Occupation	Photographer, photojournalist
Spouse	Lélia Wanick Salgado
Known for	Social documentary photography, large-scale photographic projects
Awards	Hasselblad Award, W. Eugene Smith Grant, Princess of Asturias Award

Sebastião Salgado is a renowned Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. He is celebrated for his long-term, in-depth photographic projects that document global issues of displacement, labor, and the natural world. His work, characterized by its epic scale and dramatic black-and-white aesthetic, has been exhibited in major institutions worldwide and published in numerous monographs. Salgado's later career has focused intensely on environmental conservation through his Instituto Terra and the monumental Genesis project.

Early life and education

Born in the small town of Aimorés in the state of Minas Gerais, he was raised on a cattle ranch within the Atlantic Forest biome. He initially pursued higher education in economics, earning a master's degree from the University of São Paulo and later a doctorate from the University of Paris. While working as an economist for the International Coffee Organization in London, a trip to Africa with a camera sparked a profound career shift. He subsequently abandoned economics to dedicate himself fully to photography, studying the craft in Paris.

Photography career

He began his photography career in 1973, initially working with the Sygma photo agency and later joining Gamma. In 1979, he became a full member of the prestigious Magnum Photos cooperative, where he remained for fifteen years. His early assignments for publications like The New York Times Magazine and Paris Match established his reputation for immersive, long-form photojournalism. In 1994, he and his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado left Magnum to found their own agency, Amazonas Images, in Paris, allowing him complete artistic control over his projects.

Major projects and series

His major projects are epic in scope, often taking years to complete. Workers (1993) documented vanishing manual labor across 26 countries, from Sicilian fishermen to Brazilian gold miners. Migrations (2000) and its companion The Children focused on the global plight of refugees, internally displaced persons, and migrants. His monumental Genesis (2013) was an eight-year endeavor to capture pristine landscapes, wildlife, and indigenous communities, serving as an elegy for the unspoiled planet. Each project is typically presented as a touring exhibition and a definitive monograph.

Style and technique

His photographic style is instantly recognizable for its high-contrast, meticulously composed black-and-white images. He almost exclusively uses Leica rangefinder cameras and works primarily with Kodak Tri-X film, which he processes himself to achieve his signature tonal range. The aesthetic is deeply influenced by the tradition of social documentary photography and practitioners like Walker Evans and Gordon Parks, but executed on a cinematic, grand scale. His compositions often emphasize geometric patterns, dramatic light, and the sculptural qualities of his subjects, whether human or natural.

Awards and recognition

He has received numerous major international awards throughout his career. These include the W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography, the Hasselblad Award (often considered photography's Nobel Prize), and the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts. In 2016, he was made a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France. His work is held in the permanent collections of institutions like the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Personal life and activism

He is married to architect and curator Lélia Wanick Salgado, his lifelong collaborator who designs all his books and exhibitions. In the late 1990s, the couple returned to his family's degraded ranch in Brazil and founded Instituto Terra, an environmental organization dedicated to reforesting the Atlantic Forest with native species. This profound personal project directly inspired his Genesis series. His life and work were the subject of the acclaimed 2014 documentary film The Salt of the Earth, co-directed by Wim Wenders and his son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.

Category:Brazilian photographers Category:Photojournalists Category:Documentary photographers