The Brazilian photojournalist and environmental activist Sebastião Salgado died at the age of 81 in Paris on Friday 23 May, as confirmed by him and his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado’s Herbesting Non -Profit Instituto Terra. Salgado had traveled to more than 120 countries and was perhaps best known for its striking black and white photos that document the in -depth inequalities of humanity, native communities in the Amazon -Regener forest and amazing natural landscapes. Family members stated that the death of Salgado was the result of a serious case of leukemia that was activated by Malaria, which he had contracted during a project in Indonesia in 2010.
Salgado was born in 1944 in Aimorés, a small town in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. He studied in economics at the Federal University of Espírito Santo and at the University of São Paulo, and briefly worked at the Ministry of Finance of the Nation as an economist in the late 60s. Salgado and Lélia moved to Paris in 1969 in the light of his left -wing politics and activism during the military dictatorship of Brazil. After Salgado obtained his PhD in the economy at the University of Paris in 1971, the two moved to London when he was hired at the International Coffee Organization, which sent him to countries in Africa on various trips and led his wish to document his meetings and surroundings.
Salgado made a full hinge to photography in the early 1970s, shifted back to Paris in 1973 and took freelance jobs with the photo agencies Sygma and Gamma, who worked on several stories in Africa, Europe and Latin -America. He joined Magnum photos in 1979, and in his 15 years there he published two well-received photo albums: Otras America (1986), his first publication about indigenous peoples, farmers, landscapes and folklore in Central and South America; And Sahel: L’Homme and Detsle (1986), a collaboration with Doctors Without Borders on medical missions to Nations that are confronted with famine, drought and political instability in the Sub-Sahara region in Africa.
One of Salgado’s most influential publications is Employees (1993), a cross-continental study of debilitating industrial and manual labor that has exposed a global system in which marginalized people paid the price for the development of critical infrastructures. Between 1986 and 1992, this project brought him to the 23 countries, culminating in an illustrated book with an overview of the industrial era and its working conditions in eight countries, including India, Kuwait and Poland. He followed Employees of Terra (1997), who drawn attention to the landless population of Brazil, and XODOS (2000), who are zero about the terrible conditions that design the human migration internationally.
Salgado left Magnum in 1994 to find the photo agency Amazonas together with Lélia, who played an important role in the production of her husband’s publications and supporting exhibitions. In 1998, the couple was also co-founder of Instituto Terra, a non-profit organization that focuses on revitalizing the biom around the birthplace of Aimorés of Salgado and supporting sustainable rural development. In an interview with National geographicalSalgado stated that the organization has facilitated the plants of 3 million trees in the past three decades.
The extensive publications of Salgado also include Genesis (2013), dedicated to the people, plants and animals in the wild that have opposed the global industrial industry; And Amazônia (2021), in which the biodiversity of the dense rainforest supplement its portraits of indigenous groups Like the Suruahá, so and Korubo people who rose the countries. Exhibitions born from every photo journalistic project have been performed in institutions around the world, such as the Barbican Gallery in London, the Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum in China and the International Center of Photography in New York City.
“I am sad and shocked that I received the news from the death of Sebastião,” said Peter Fetterman, whose photography gallery in Santa Monica, California, represented the photographer. “Sebastião and I have been a large part of each other’s lives for more than 35 years since Henri Cartier Bresson introduced us to Paris for the first time. A truly unique person and photographer – both for nature and humanity. His legacy is eternal.”
Salgado is survived by Lélia, their two sons Juliano and Rodrigo and grandchildren Nara and Flávio. A Solo exhibition of his photography can be seen in Peter Fetterman Gallery until June 21.
