SEBASTIÃO SALGADO

Salgado’s monumental projects, including Workers, Migrations, Genesis, and Amazônia, redefined documentary photography and earned him major accolades, such as the Praemium Imperiale and the Sony World Photography Award for Outstanding Contribution to Photography.

Early Years

Salgado was born in 1944 in Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil, the only son among eight children of a cattle ranching family. He studied economics at the University of São Paulo, earning a master’s degree in 1968, and later completed a PhD in economics at the University of Paris. Forced into exile by Brazil’s military regime, Salgado moved to France in 1969 with his wife, architect Lélia Wanick Salgado. He began his career as an economist, working for the International Coffee Organization, but discovered photography in the early 1970s during work trips to Africa, borrowing Lélia’s camera. By 1973, he had shifted to photography full-time, launching a career spanning more than 120 countries and five decades.

Sebastião Salgado Artworks

Salgado’s contemporary art practice was defined by long-term, immersive projects that combined the rigour of documentary photography with the empathy of a committed humanist. His signature high-contrast black-and-white images, often produced as large-format prints, bear witness to human suffering and the degradation of the environment but also the planet’s sublime beauty.

Latin America and Early Documentary Work

Salgado’s first significant project, Other Americas (1977–1984), documented indigenous and rural communities across Latin America, exploring lives marginalised by modernisation and political upheaval. This was followed by Sahel: Man in Distress (1986), a powerful account of famine in Africa, and An Uncertain Grace (1990), which included iconic images of the Serra Pelada gold mine in Brazil.

Workers and Global Labour

The monumental series Workers: Archaeology of the Industrial Age (1993) is a tribute to manual labourers worldwide, from miners and steelworkers to ship-breakers and tea pickers. Salgado spent six years documenting the vanishing world of physical labour in 23 countries.

Migrations and Human Displacement

In Migrations (2000), Salgado turned his lens to mass displacement caused by war, famine, and economic hardship. Over six years, he travelled to more than 40 countries, producing a haunting visual record of refugees, migrants, and exiles. The series Exodus (2000) further explores these themes.

Environmental Projects: Genesis and Amazônia

From the 2000s, Salgado’s focus shifted towards environmental activism. Genesis (2013) celebrates the planet’s pristine landscapes, wildlife, and indigenous cultures, created over eight years and more than 30 trips. Amazônia (2021) documents the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous peoples, offering a warning and a vision of hope. Salgado’s environmental commitment extended beyond photography: in 1998, he and Lélia founded Instituto Terra, restoring thousands of hectares of Atlantic Forest in Brazil.

Awards and Accolades

• Praemium Imperiale (2021)
• Hasselblad Award (1989)
• World Press Photo of the Year (multiple years)
• Oskar Barnack Award (1985)
• Royal Photographic Society Centenary Medal (1993)
• Eugene Smith Award for Humanitarian Photography
• Sony World Photography Award for Outstanding Contribution to Photography (2024)
• UNICEF Special Representative (2001)
• UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador (2010)

Exhibitions

Sebastião Salgado has been the subject of solo and group exhibitions at important institutions. Below is a selection.

Solo Exhibitions

• Each Seed a Body, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2025)
• Amazônia, Science Museum, London; Science and Industry Museum, Manchester (2021–2022)
• Genesis, International Center of Photography, New York; Natural History Museum, London (2013–2014)
• Workers, Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art (1993)

Group Exhibitions

• Photography Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Documentary Photography, Centre Pompidou, Paris
• Human Rights: A Visual History, Tate Modern, London

Website and Instagram

Sebastião Salgado’s official website: Instituto Terra

Instagram: @sebastiaosalgadoofficial

Sebastião Salgado FAQs

Ocula | 2025