Remembering Sebastião Salgado: A Legacy in Documentary Photography

Sebastião Salgado, regarded as one of the world’s greatest documentary photographers, has died at the age of 81. His memorable images of worker exploitation, environmental destruction, and human rights abuses gained him widespread acclaim.

Black-and-white photograph showing a large group of workers climbing steep rock faces using wooden ladders, capturing the intensity and hardship of labor. — One of the photos from the Serra Pelada gold mine in Brazil, regarded as his most famous photos

The Brazil-born photojournalist was known for his dramatic and unflinching black-and-white images of hardship, conflict and natural beauty, captured in 130 countries over 55 years.

His hard-hitting photos chronicled major global events such as the Rwanda genocide in 1994, burning oilfields at the end of the Gulf War in 1991, and the famine in the Sahel region of Africa in 1984.

Black and white photograph depicting a group of people gathered under the shade of a large tree, with sun rays filtering through the branches, creating a dramatic and somber atmosphere. — Refugees from Tigray hide under the trees to avoid the surveillance of Ethiopian airplanes, 1995

Born in Brazil in 1944, Salgado worked in the medium of photography from 1973, covering major news events and pursuing in-depth documentary projects. He traveled to over 100 countries, including some of the most remote places on earth. Salgado refers to his style as “inside the circle,” often living with his subjects for weeks.

“His lens revealed the world and its contradictions; his life, the power of transformative action,” said a statement from Instituto Terra, the environmental organisation he founded with his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado.

Above, from the BBC, May 23, 2025 – see full story here.

Black-and-white photograph of a woman sitting alone in a spotlight, with a man leaning over her, while several people sit quietly in the background, partially obscured in shadow. — A doctor visit in Ecuador, International Center of Photography

I fell in love with Salgado’s work at the time his powerful, hauntingly beautiful project Genesis had its North American debut at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in 2013, part of the Contact Photography Festival. Salgado called it his love letter to the planet, a series that only a lifelong committed environmentalist could have produced.

This interview at the time of Genesis has always stuck with me.