Sebastião Salgado

By LatAm ARTE

Sebastião Salgado was born on February 8, 1944, in Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Originally trained as an economist, he earned a Ph.D. in economics in Paris. He began photography in the 1970s while working for the International Coffee Organization. Salgado soon left economics to pursue photojournalism full-time. He worked with photo agencies like Sygma, Gamma, and Magnum Photos. Salgado is known for his powerful black-and-white images of workers, migration, and nature. His early projects documented labor and industrial life around the world. In the 1990s, his focus shifted to refugees and global displacement in "Exodus" . Salgado co-founded Amazonas Images with his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado. He later turned to environmental themes in "Genesis" , capturing pristine landscapes. His style combines artful composition with deep social and environmental concern. Salgado has received numerous awards, including the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal. He and Lélia also led a reforestation project in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. In 2014, Wim Wenders released a documentary about him, "The Salt of the Earth." Sebastião Salgado remains a globally respected voice in humanitarian and environmental photography.