Brazilian photographer (1944–2025)
Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior (8 February 1944 – 23 May 2025) was a Braziliansocial documentary photographer andphotojournalist .[ 1]
Salgado traveled in more than 120 countries for his photographic projects, which appeared in numerous press publications and books. Touring exhibitions of his work have been presented throughout the world.
He was aUNICEF Goodwill Ambassador .[ 2] W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant in 1982,[ 3] American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992;[ 4] Royal Photographic Society 's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in 1993.[ 5] Académie des Beaux-Arts at theInstitut de France since April 2016.[ 6] [ 7]
Early life and education [ edit ] Sebastião Salgado was born on 8 February 1944,[ 8] Aimorés , in the Brazilian state ofMinas Gerais .[ 9] economist , earning aBA degree from theFederal University of Espírito Santo (UFES); amaster's degree from theUniversity of São Paulo , in 1968; and a PhD from theUniversity of Paris , in 1971.[ 9]
He began work as an economist for theInternational Coffee Organization and often traveled to Africa on missions for theWorld Bank .[ 10]
It was on his travels to Africa that Salgado first started seriously taking photographs. He chose to abandon a career as an economist and switched to photography in 1973, working initially on news assignments before veering more towards documentary-type work. Salgado initially worked with the photo agencySygma and the Paris-basedGamma , but in 1979, he joined the international cooperative of photographersMagnum Photos . He left Magnum in 1994 and with his wifeLélia Wanick Salgado formed his own agency, Amazonas Images, in Paris, to represent his work. He is particularly noted for his social documentary photography of workers in less developed nations.[ 10] [ 11]
Salgado worked on long-term, self-assigned projects, many of which have been published as books:The Other Americas ,Sahel ,Workers ,Migrations , andGenesis . The aforementioned three are mammoth collections with hundreds of images each from all around the world. His most famous pictures are of agold mine in Brazil calledSerra Pelada , taken between 1986 and 1989.[ 12] UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2001.[ 13]
Between 2004 and 2011, Salgado worked onGenesis , aiming at the presentation of the unblemished faces of nature and humanity. It consists of a series of photographs of landscapes and wildlife, as well as of human communities that continue to live in accordance with their ancestral traditions and cultures. This body of work is conceived as a potential path to humanity's rediscovery of itself in nature.[ 14]
In September and October 2007, Salgado displayed his photographs of coffee workers from India, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Brazil at theBrazilian Embassy in London. The aim of the project was to raise public awareness of the origins of the popular drink.[ 15]
Salgado photographed the landscape and people of theAmazon rainforest (Amazônia) in Brazil.[ 16] [ 17]
Salgado's work has been described byAndrei Netto ofThe Guardian [ 8]
Salgado and his work are the focus of the filmThe Salt of the Earth Wim Wenders and Salgado's son,Juliano Ribeiro Salgado , and produced by Lélia Wanick Salgado.[ 18]
Reforestation of Fazenda Bulcão, or Bulcão Farm, by Instituto Terra Together, Lélia and Sebastião worked since the 1990s on the restoration of a part of theAtlantic Forest in Brazil. In 1998, they succeeded in turning 17,000 acres (6,900 ha) into a nature reserve and created the Instituto Terra. The institute is dedicated to a mission of reforestation, conservation and environmental education.[ 19] [ 20]
Personal life and death [ edit ] Salgado was married toLélia Wanick Salgado and had two children, includingJuliano Ribeiro Salgado .[ 21]
On a 2010 trip toIndonesian New Guinea , Salgado contractedfalciparum malaria , which permanently impaired his bone-marrow function.[ 22] [ 23] [ 21] [ 2]
Salgado (left) gives Brazilian presidentLula da Silva his new book in 2006, during Lula's first presidency. An Uncertain Grace . Essays byEduardo Galeano andFred Ritchin .Salgado, Sebastião; Galeano, Eduardo; Ritchin, Fred; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1990).An uncertain grace . New York: Aperture Foundation.ISBN 978-0-89381-460-1 OCLC 22701623 . Salgado, Sebastião; Galeano, Eduardo; Ritchin, Fred (2004).Sebastião Salgado: An uncertain grace . London: Thames & Hudson.ISBN 978-0-500-28489-6 OCLC 56457689 . Workers: Archaeology of the Industrial Age .Salgado, Sebastião; Buarque de Holanda, Francisco; Saramago, José; Landers, Clifford (1997).Terra: struggle of the landless . London: Phaidon Press.ISBN 0-7148-3636-2 OCLC 610974180 . Salgado, Sebastião (2000).Migrations: humanity in transition . New York: Aperture.ISBN 978-0-89381-891-3 OCLC 914864396 . The Children: Refugees and Migrants . New York: Aperture, 2000.ISBN 978-0-89381-894-4 Sahel: The End of the Road . Oakland, CA:University of California Press , 2004.ISBN 978-0-520-24170-1 Africa . Cologne: Taschen, 2007.ISBN 978-3-8365-2343-1 Genesis . Cologne: Taschen, 2013.ISBN 978-3-8365-3872-5 From my Land to the Planet . Roma: Contrasto, 2014.ISBN 978-88-6965-537-1 The Scent of a Dream: Travels in the World of Coffee . New York: Abrams, 2015.ISBN 978-1-4197-1921-9 Kuwait. A Desert on Fire . Cologne: Taschen, 2016.ISBN 978-3-8365-6125-9 Gold . Cologne: Taschen, 2019. Edited by Lélia Wanick Salgado.ISBN 978-3-8365-7508-9 Amazônia . Cologne: Taschen, 2021. Edited by Lélia Wanick Salgado.ISBN 978-3-8365-8510-1 [ 16] View of Salgado'sGenesis exhibition in 2014 Genesis ,Royal Ontario Museum , Toronto, Canada, 2013;[ 37] Natural History Museum, London , 2013;[ 38] Maison Européenne de la Photographie , Paris, 2013–14;[ 39] National Museum of Singapore , 2014;[ 40] Palácio das Artes , Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2014;Fotografiska Stockholm, 2014;Palazzo della Ragione, Milan , Italy, 2014;International Center of Photography , New York City, 2014–15;[ 41] CaixaForum Barcelona , Barcelona, Spain, 2014–15;[ 42] Sejong Center , Seoul, South Korea, 2014–15;[ 43] Cordoaria Nacional , Lisbon, Portugal, 2015;[ 44] CaixaForum Palma , Palma, Spain, 2015;[ 45] Amerika Haus Berlin , Berlin, 2015;Power Station of Art , Shanghai, China, 2015;Kunstfoyer , Munich, Germany, 2015–16;Prague Castle , Prague, Czech Republic, 2017;[ 46] Nederlands Fotomuseum , Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2017[ 47] [ 43] Déclaration ,Musée de l'Homme , Paris, 2018–19[ 48] Gold ,Fotografiska Stockholm, 2019[ 49] Fotografiska Tallinn, 2020.[ 50] Amazônia ,Philharmonie de Paris , 2021;[ 51] Science Museum, London , 2021–22;[ 52] Science and Industry Museum , Manchester, UK, 2022[ 52] MAXXI , Rome, 2021–22;[ 53] Serviço Social do Comércio , Sao Paulo, 2022–23;[ 54] Museum of Tomorrow , Rio de Janeiro, 2021–22;[ 55] California Science Center , Los Angeles, 2022,[ 56] Teatro Fernán Gómez , Madrid, 2023–24.[ 57] In 2025,Fotografiska Shanghai presentedRetrospective , the first major posthumous retrospective of Sebastião Salgado, bringing together works from across his career includingOther Americas ,Sahel ,Workers ,Migrations , andGenesis .[ 58]
^ "Sebastião Salgado (1944–2025) – Morre Sebastião Salgado, o maior fotógrafo brasileiro, que registrou dramas do mundo" .Folha de S.Paulo (in Brazilian Portuguese). 23 May 2025. Retrieved23 May 2025 .^a b Youngs, Ian; Emma Lynch (23 May 2025)."Sebastião Salgado: Legendary Brazilian photographer dies at 81" .BBC News . Retrieved23 May 2025 . ^a b "1982: Recipients: Sebastião Salgado" .W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund . Archived fromthe original on 15 September 2015. Retrieved15 October 2015 .^a b "Sebastiao Ribeiro Salgado" .American Academy of Arts & Sciences . 7 August 2023. Retrieved24 December 2023 .^a b c Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Award Archived 1 December 2012 at theWayback Machine Accessed 13 August 2012^ "Academician's Sword for Sebastião Salgado. TASCHEN Books" .TASCHEN . Retrieved7 February 2019 .^ "Les photographes Salgado, Barbey et Gaumy élus à l'Académie des beaux-arts" .Le Parisien . 16 April 2016. Archived fromthe original on 26 April 2019. Retrieved7 February 2019 .^a b Netto, Andrei (8 February 2024)."Photographer Sebastião Salgado at 80: 'They say I was an aesthete of misery' .The Guardian ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved8 February 2024 . ^a b "Sebastião Salgado" .International Center of Photography . 2 February 2019. Retrieved1 June 2021 .^a b "Biography: Sebastião Salgado" .The Guardian . 11 September 2004.ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved1 October 2017 .^ "Sebastiao Salgado – biography" .www.unicef.org . Retrieved1 October 2017 .^ "Sebastião Salgado" .The Art of Photography . 14 May 2015. Archived fromthe original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved1 October 2017 .^ "Sebastião Salgado" .UNICEF . 29 April 2005. Retrieved20 February 2012 .^ "Sebastião Salgado: Genesis" .International Center of Photography . 23 February 2016. Retrieved1 October 2017 .^ "Sebastião Salgado – Genesis" .Graphicine . Archived fromthe original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved1 October 2017 .^a b Jones, Jonathan (21 June 2021)." .The Guardian . Retrieved25 July 2021 .^ Johnson, Reed (16 February 2023)."Are Californians destroying the Amazon? A Sebastião Salgado exhibit raises hard questions" .Los Angeles Times . Retrieved2 April 2023 . ^a b Bradshaw, Peter (16 July 2015)."The Salt of the Earth review – colourful portrait of visionary photographer Sebastião Salgado" .The Guardian .ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved23 May 2025 .^ "Instituto Terra" .Youchange (in French). Retrieved1 October 2017 .^ Funk, McKenzie (October 2015)."Sebastião Salgado Has Seen the Forest, Now He's Seeing the Trees" .Smithsonian Magazine . Smithsonian. Retrieved5 June 2023 . ^a b Malleret, Constance (23 May 2025)."Sebastião Salgado, photographer known for Amazon rainforest images, dies aged 81" .The Guardian .ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved23 May 2025 . ^ Armando, Antenore (17 June 2024)." .piauí . Retrieved24 May 2025 . ^ Ionova, Ana (23 May 2025)."Sebastião Salgado, Acclaimed Brazilian Photographer, Is Dead at 81" .The New York Times . Retrieved23 May 2025 . ^ "Sebastião Salgado" .Oskar Barnack Award . Retrieved2 May 2015 .^ "Sebastião Salgado" .Hasselblad Foundation . Retrieved6 March 2015 .^ "Sebastião Salgado" .Leica Oskar Barnack Award . Retrieved2 May 2015 .^a b c "Sebastião Salgado" .The Japan Art Association (in Portuguese). 14 September 2021.^ "Sebastião Salgado – Laureates – Princess of Asturias Awards" .The Princess of Asturias Foundation . Archived fromthe original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved1 October 2017 .^ "Sebastião Salgado, Premio de las Artes 1998" .Turismo Asturias (in European Spanish). 9 January 2017. Retrieved1 October 2017 .^ "Photographic Society of Japan Awards" .Photographic Society of Japan . Retrieved5 March 2015 .^ "La décima edición de PHotoEspaña finaliza con 600.000 visitantes" .El Publicista . 20 July 2007. Retrieved1 October 2017 .^ "Photographer Sebastiao Salgado wins German peace prize" .DW . Retrieved7 April 2023 .^ "2024 Sony World Photography Awards: Winners revealed" . 18 April 2024. Retrieved26 May 2025 .^ Siemaszko, Anna (24 May 2024)."Meet Sebastião Salgado, 2024's Outstanding Contribution to Photography Recipient" .World Photography Organisation . Archived fromthe original on 28 April 2025. Retrieved26 May 2025 . ^a b c Academie des Beux Arts ^ "Ordonnance Souveraine n° 7.202 du 18 novembre 2018 portant promotions ou nominations dans l'Ordre du Mérite Culturel" .Journal de Monaco (8409). 23 November 2018.^ "Sebastião Salgado: Genesis" (Press release).Royal Ontario Museum . Retrieved17 August 2014 .^ Coomes, Phil (10 April 2013)."Sebastiao Salgado's Genesis" .BBC News . Retrieved13 August 2014 . ^ "Sebastião Salgado, Genesis ",Paris Photo . Accessed 13 August 2014. ^ "Genesis ",National Museum of Singapore . Accessed 17 August 2014. ^ "Sebastião Salgado: Genesis" .International Center of Photography . 23 February 2016.^ "Sebastião Salgado. Génesis. CaixaForum Barcelona" .prensa.lacaixa.es (in Spanish). Archived fromthe original on 1 October 2017. Retrieved1 October 2017 .^a b "Genesis Photography Exhibition – Sebastião Salgado" .Site of Special Things – Travel, Arts & Entertainment . 15 October 2014. Retrieved1 October 2017 .^ "Exhibition. Génesis. Sebastião Salgado" .Galerias Municipais de Lisboa . 15 March 2021. Retrieved24 May 2025 .^ "CaixaFòrum Palma supera els 304.000 visitants el 2015" .Ara Balears (in Catalan). 5 January 2016. Retrieved24 May 2025 .^ "Sebastião Salgado: Genesis" . Tourist website of Prague. 2 June 2017. Retrieved11 July 2017 .[dead link ^ "Sebastião Salgado: Genesis" .Nederlands Fotomuseum . Archived fromthe original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved29 July 2017 .^ "Déclarations, exposition photo Sebastião Salgado" .Musée de l'Homme . Archived fromthe original on 11 June 2019. Retrieved13 June 2019 .^ "Sebastião Salgado" .Fotografiska Stockholm . 12 September 2019. Retrieved8 January 2026 .^ "Artist Index" .Fotografiska Museum . Retrieved8 January 2026 .^ Churm, Philip Andrew (22 May 2021)."Salgado's exhibition highlights Amazon forest destruction" .euronews . Retrieved25 July 2021 . ^a b "Amazônia" .Science and Industry Museum . Retrieved2 April 2023 .^ "Sebastião Salgado. Amazônia – MAXXI" .www.maxxi.art . 16 February 2021. Retrieved2 April 2023 .^ "Exposição 'Amazônia', de Sebastião Salgado, estreia no Sesc Pompeia" .sescsp.org.br . 14 February 2022. Retrieved2 April 2023 .^ imoebius (18 February 2022)." . Retrieved2 April 2023 . ^ del Barco, Mandalit (2 November 2022)."In the lush Amazon, a photographer hopes to document life before it is too late" .All Things Considered NPR . Retrieved7 April 2023 . ^ "Exposición fotográfica Amazonia de Sebastião Salgado en Madrid" .amazoniasebastiaosalgado.com (in European Spanish). Retrieved18 July 2023 .^ "Sebastião Salgado" .Fotografiska Shanghai . 18 July 2025. Retrieved8 January 2026 .
1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019–2024 Not awarded
2025
Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts
Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
International National Academics Artists People Other
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Brazil: Commander of theOrder of Rio Branco (2004)[35]
France: Knight of theLegion of Honour (2016)[35]
Monaco: Knight of theOrder of Cultural Merit (Monaco) (2018)[36]
