Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior (born February 8, 1944) is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

. He has traveled in over 120 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these have appeared in numerous press publications and books. Touring exhibitions of his work have been presented throughout the world. Salgado is a

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador is an official postnominal honorific title, title of authority, legal status and job description assigned to those goodwill ambassadors and advocates who are designated by the United Nations. The United Nations Inter ...

. He was awarded the

W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund is an organisation established to encourage and support individuals who are active in the field of photography for humanitarian purposes. It gives out the W. Eugene Smith Grant and Howard Chapnick Grant. Since 1979 ...

Grant in 1982, Foreign Honorary Membership of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1992Mr. Sebastiao Ribeiro Salgado
,

. Accessed 13 August 2014. and the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in 1993.Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Award
Accessed 13 August 2012 He has been a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts at the

Institut de France The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institut ...

since April 2016.

Early life and education

Salgado was born on February 8, 1944, in

Aimorés Aimorés is a municipality founded on 18 September 1925 in the countryside of Minas Gerais in the Rio Doce Valley, 440 km east to the state capital, Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a populati ...

, in the state of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literall ...

, Brazil. After a somewhat itinerant childhood, Salgado trained as an

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, earning a BA degree from UFES, a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from the

University of São Paulo The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the bes ...

in Brazil, and a PhD from

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. He began work as an economist for the

International Coffee Organization The International Coffee Organization (ICO) was set up in 1963 in London, under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) due to the economic importance of coffee. It administers the International Coffee Agreement (ICA), an important instrument for ...

, often traveling to Africa on missions for the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

Photography

It was on his travels to Africa that he 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 agency Sygma and the Paris-based

Gamma Gamma (uppercase , lowercase ; ''gámma'') is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter r ...

, but in 1979, he joined the international cooperative of photographers

Magnum Photos Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York City, Paris, London and Tokyo. It was founded in 1947 in Paris by photographers Robert Capa, David Seymour (photographer), Davi ...

. He left Magnum in 1994 and with his wife Lélia 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. His work resides in Paris. Salgado works on long term, self-assigned projects, many of which have been published as books: ''The Other Americas'', ''Sahel'', ''Workers'', ''Migrations'', and ''Genesis''. The latter three are mammoth collections with hundreds of images each from all around the world. His most famous pictures are of a gold mine in Brazil called Serra Pelada. He has also been a

since 2001. Between 2004 and 2011, Salgado worked on ''Genesis,'' 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. In September and October 2007, Salgado displayed his photographs of

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

workers from India, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Brazil at the Brazilian Embassy in London. The aim of the project was to raise public awareness of the origins of the popular drink. Salgado has photographed the landscape and people of the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

(Amazónia) in Brazil. Salgado and his work are the focus of the film '' The Salt of the Earth'' (2014), directed by

Wim Wenders Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker, playwright, author, and photographer. He is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among many honors, he has received three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Docu ...

and Salgado's son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, and produced by Lélia Wanick Salgado.

Environmentalism

Together, Lélia and Sebastião have worked since the 1990s on the restoration of a part of the

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and th ...

in Brazil. In 1998, they succeeded in turning 17,000 acres into a nature reserve and created the Instituto Terra. The institute is dedicated to a mission of reforestation, conservation and environmental education.

Awards

* 1982: W. Eugene Smith Grant from the

* 1985:

Oskar Barnack Award The Leica Oskar Barnack Award, presented almost continuously since 1979, recognizes photography expressing the relationship between man and the environment. It was known as the Oskar Barnack Award when presented by World Press Photo between 1979 a ...

* 1989:

Hasselblad Award The Hasselblad Award (in full: Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography) is an award granted to "a photographer recognized for major achievements". History The award—and the Hasselblad Foundation—was set up from the estat ...

Hasselblad Foundation The Hasselblad Foundation (in full: Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation), established in 1979 at the will of Victor Hasselblad, is a fully independent, not-for-profit foundation based at Götaplatsen in Gothenburg, Sweden. The main aim of the Fou ...

, Gothenburg, Sweden * 1992: Oskar Barnack Award * 1992: Foreign Honorary Member of the

* 1993: Centenary Medal from the

* 1993: Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) from the Royal Photographic Society * 1994: Grand Prix National French Ministry of Culture,

Ministry of Culture (France) The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual ...

* 1998: Prince of Asturias Awards, Arts category * 1988: King of Spain International Journalism Award * 2003: International Award from the Photographic Society of Japan * 2007: M2-El Mundo People's Choice Award for best exhibition a

PhotoEspaña PHotoEspaña, the International Festival of Photography and Visual Arts of Madrid, is a photography forum that began in 1998. The Festival’s program presents work by Spanish and international image-makers. It runs an awards programme with sev ...

, for ''Africa'' * 2019:

Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is an international peace prize awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (English: ''German Publishers and Booksellers Association''), which runs the Frankfurt Book Fair. The award ceremony is held in the Paulskirche in ...

* 2021: Crystal Award,

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

* 2021: Praemium Imperiale

Honours

*: Commander of the

Order of Rio Branco The Order of Rio Branco (''Ordem de Rio Branco'') is an honorific order of Brazil instituted by decree 51.697 of February 5, 1963. It is named in honor of the Brazilian diplomat José Paranhos, Baron of Rio Branco. The President of Brazil serve ...

(2004)Academie des Beux Arts
/ref> *: Knight of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleo ...

(2016) *: Commander of the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

(2014) *: Knight of the Order of Cultural Merit (Monaco) (2018)

Publications

* ''An Uncertain Grace.'' Essays by

Eduardo Galeano Eduardo Hughes Galeano (; 3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "global soccer's pre-eminent man of letters" and "a literary giant of the Latin American left". Galea ...

and

Fred Ritchin Fred Ritchin is dean emeritus of the International Center of Photography (ICP) School. Ritchin was also the founding director of the Documentary Photography and Photojournalism Program at the School of ICP and was appointed dean in 2014. Prior to j ...

. ** ** * ''Workers: Archaeology of the Industrial Age.'' ** ** ** * * ** * ''The Children: Refugees and Migrants.'' New York, NY: Aperture, 2000. . * ''Sahel: The End of the Road.'' Oakland, CA:

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...

, 2004. . * ''Africa.'' Cologne: Taschen, 2007. . * ''Genesis.'' Cologne: Taschen, 2013. . * ''From my Land to the Planet.'' Roma: Contrasto, 2014. . * ''The Scent of a Dream: Travels in the World of Coffee.'' New York: Abrams, 2015. . * ''Kuwait. A Desert on Fire.'' Cologne: Taschen, 2016. . * ''Gold''. Cologne: Taschen, 2019. Edited by Lélia Wanick Salgado. . * ''Amazônia''. Cologne: Taschen, 2021. Edited by Lélia Wanick Salgado. .

Filmography

* '' The Salt of the Earth'' (2014). Documentary about and with Salgado, directed by

and Salgado's son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.

Exhibitions

*''Genesis,''

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

, Toronto, Canada, 2013;

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

, 2013; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, 2013–14;

National Museum of Singapore ms, Muzium Negara Singapura ta, சிங்கப்பூரின் தேசிய அருங்காட்சியகம் , native_name_lang = , logo = , image = 2016 Singapur, Museum Planning Area, Narodowe Muzeum Singapuru (02) ...

, 2014; Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2014;

Fotografiska Fotografiska is a centre for contemporary photography in the Södermalm district of Stockholm, Sweden that was founded by brothers Jan and Per Broman and opened on 21 May 2010. In March 2021, it merged with NeueHouse and is operated by Yoram Roth ...

, Stockholm, 2014;

Palazzo della Ragione, Milan The Palazzo della Ragione ("Palace of Wisdom" literally) is a historic building of Milan, Italy, located in Piazza Mercanti, facing the Loggia degli Osii. It was built in the 13th century and originally served as a broletto (i.e., an administra ...

, Italy, 2014; International Center of Photography, New York City, 2014–15; CaixaForum Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2014–15; Sejong Center, Seoul, South Korea, 2014–15; Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon, Portugal, 2015;

CaixaForum Palma CaixaForum is a series of museums, galleries and exhibition centres sponsored by Catalan bank and not-for-profit La Caixa. It has the following locations: * CaixaForum Barcelona * CaixaForum Madrid * CaixaForum Lleida * CaixaForum Palma * Caixa ...

, Palma, Spain, 2015; Amerika Haus Berlin, Berlin, 2015; Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China, 2015; Kunstfoyer Munich, Germany, October 2015 - January 2016;

Prague Castle Prague Castle ( cs, Pražský hrad; ) is a castle complex in Prague 1 Municipality within Prague, Czech Republic, built in the 9th century. It is the official office of the President of the Czech Republic. The castle was a seat of power for king ...

, Prague, Czech Republic, 2017; Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2017. * ''Déclaration'', Musée de l'Homme, Paris, 2018–19 *''Amazônia'', Philharmonie de Paris, 20 March – 31 October 2021

References

External links

Instituto TerraAmazonas Images
Photo agency formed by Salgado and his wife Lélia Wanick.

(17 minute video)

''New York Times'', 2009

''Huffington Post UK'', 2013
Sebastião Salgado
at

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salgado, Sebastiao Brazilian photographers Fine art photographers Social documentary photographers 1944 births Living people Magnum photographers Brazilian journalists Brazilian socialists University of São Paulo alumni 20th-century Brazilian people 21st-century Brazilian people Expatriate photographers in Sudan University of Paris alumni Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Culture in Minas Gerais