A lens on poverty and the environment: Sebastiao Salgado is dead at age 81
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A lens on poverty and the environment: Sebastiao Salgado is dead at age 81
Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado has passed away at age 81. Known for sweeping black-and-white photography that captured the natural world and marginalised communities. Born in 1944 in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, he saw one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems, the Atlantic Forest, recede from the land he grew up on. Critics accused Salgado during his career of glamourising poverty, with some calling his style an “aesthetic of the dignity of the poor world” But Salgado defended his work as a vision of the region’s vitality, and defended his depiction of Indigenous peoples in the series The Salt of the Earth, which captured the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous people in its natural setting. He and his wife spent part of the last decades of their life working to restore the forest and protect it from further threats. He is survived by his wife, Lelia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, and two sons, Juliro Ribeiro Salgado and Juliano Ribeo Salgado.
His death was confirmed on Friday by the nonprofit he and his wife Lelia Deluiz Wanick Salgado founded, the Instituto Terra.
“It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Sebastiao Salgado, our founder, mentor and eternal source of inspiration,” the institute wrote in a statement.
“Sebastiao was much more than one of the greatest photographers of our time. Alongside his life partner, Lelia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, he sowed hope where there was devastation and brought to life the belief that environmental restoration is also a profound act of love for humanity.
“His lens revealed the world and its contradictions; his life, the power of transformative action.”
Salgado’s upbringing would prove to be the inspiration for some of his work. Born in 1944 in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, he saw one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems, the Atlantic Forest, recede from the land he grew up on, as the result of development.
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He and his wife spent part of the last decades of their life working to restore the forest and protect it from further threats.
But Salgado was best known for his epic photography, which captured the exploitation of both the environment and people. His pictures were marked by their depth and texture, each black-and-white frame a multilayered world of tension and struggle.
In one recent photography collection, entitled Exodus, he portrayed populations across the world taking on migrations big and small. One shot showed a crowded boat packed with migrants and asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Another showed refugees in Zaire balancing buckets and jugs above their heads, as they trekked to retrieve water for their camp.
Salgado himself was no stranger to fleeing hardship. A trained economist, he and his wife left Brazil in 1969, near the start of a nearly two-decade-long military dictatorship.
By 1973, he had begun to dedicate himself to photography full time. After working several years with France-based photography agencies, he joined the cooperative Magnum Photos, where he would become one of its most celebrated artists.
His work would draw him back to Brazil in the late 1980s, where he would embark on one of his most famous projects: photographing the backbreaking conditions at the Serra Pelada gold mine, near the mouth of the Amazon River.
Through his lens, global audiences saw thousands of men climbing rickety wooden ladders out of the crater they were carving. Sweat made their clothes cling to their skin. Heavy bundles were slung over their backs. And the mountainside around them was jagged with the ridges they had chipped away at.
“He had shot the story in his own time, spending his own money,” his agent Neil Burgess wrote in the British Journal of Photography.
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Burgess explained that Salgado “spent around four weeks living and working alongside the mass of humanity that had flooded in, hoping to strike it rich” at the gold mine.
“Salgado had used a complex palette of techniques and approaches: landscape, portraiture, still life, decisive moments and general views,” Burgess said in his essay.
“He had captured images in the midst of violence and danger, and others at sensitive moments of quiet and reflection. It was a romantic, narrative work that engaged with its immediacy, but had not a drop of sentimentality. It was astonishing, an epic poem in photographic form.”
When photos from the series were published in The Sunday Times Magazine, Burgess said the reaction was so great that his phone would not stop ringing.
Critics, however, accused Salgado during his career of glamourising poverty, with some calling his style an “aesthetic of misery”.
But Salgado pushed back on that assessment in a 2024 interview with The Guardian. “Why should the poor world be uglier than the rich world? The light here is the same as there. The dignity here is the same as there.”
In 2014, one of his sons, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, partnered with the German filmmaker Wim Wenders to film a documentary about Salgado’s life, called The Salt of the Earth.
One of his last major photography collections was Amazonia, which captured the Amazon rainforest and its people. While some viewers criticised his depiction of Indigenous peoples in the series, Salgado defended his work as a vision of the region’s vitality.
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“To show this pristine place, I photograph Amazonia alive, not the dead Amazonia,” he told The Guardian in 2021, after the collection’s release.
As news of Salgado’s death spread on Friday, artists and public figures offered their remembrances of the photographer and his work. Among the mourners was Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, who offered a tribute on social media.
“His discontent with the fact that the world is so unequal and his obstinate talent in portraying the reality of the oppressed always served as a wake-up call for the conscience of all humanity,” Lula wrote.
“Salgado did not only use his eyes and his camera to portray people: He also used the fullness of his soul and his heart. For this very reason, his work will continue to be a cry for solidarity. And a reminder that we are all equal in our diversity.”
Iconic Photographer Sebastiao Salgado Has Died
Legendary Brazilian social documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado has died at age 81. Known for his powerful black-and-white imagery incorporating themes of poverty, war, displacement, and the environment. Salgado announced his retirement in February 2024 after years of working in hostile environments. His signature high-contrast style and deep empathy earned him international acclaim and numerous awards.
Salgado — known for his powerful black-and-white imagery incorporating themes of poverty, war, displacement, and the environment — announced his retirement in February 2024 after years of working in hostile environments.
“I know I won’t live much longer. But I don’t want to live much longer. I’ve lived so much and seen so many things,” Salgado said in an interview last year.
Salgado suffered from a blood disorder that was a result of the malaria he caught while in Indonesia. He also had a spinal issue from when a landmine blew up a vehicle he was riding in during Mozambique’s War of Independence in 1974.
Born in Aimorés, Brazil, Salgado trained as an economist before turning to photography, a shift that led him to chronicle the global consequences of labor, migration, and environmental devastation.
Salgado’s major project — including Workers, Migrations, and Genesis — took him to over 120 countries, often photographing in extreme conditions. His signature high-contrast style and deep empathy earned him international acclaim and numerous awards.
Salgado received the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award from the Sony World Photography Awards 2024.
He co-founded Amazonas Images and, with his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado, reforested over 1,500 acres of degraded land in Brazil, creating the Instituto Terra, a testament to their shared vision of renewal.
PetaPixel interviewed Salgado in 2022 about his project Amazônia which was nine years in the making.
This is a breaking story and this article will be updated.
Award-winning Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado passes away at age 81
Sebastião Salgado has died at the age of 81. His family said he passed away due to leukemia, a condition that developed from complications linked to malaria in Indonesia in 2010. He became known for his work in black-and-white photography, focusing on labour, migration, poverty and the environment. His life and work were shown in the 2014 documentary The Salt of the Earth, co-directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders and Salgado’s son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. He is survived by his wife and two sons, Juliano and Rodrigo. He was an honorary member of the US Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and joined the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2016. His recent health problems led him to cancel a public event in Reims, France, where he was due to attend an exhibition featuring his son Rodrigo’s work.
“Through the lens of his camera, Sebastião tirelessly fought for a more just, humane, and ecological world,” his family said in a statement reported by the Associated Press (AP).
Salgado became ill with a specific form of malaria while photographing for his “Genesis” project. His family said this illness later led to serious health problems, including the leukemia that caused his death 15 years later.
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His death was first shared by Instituto Terra, the environmental organisation he started with his wife, and the French Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was a member. Neither group gave details on where he died.
“Sebastião was more than one of the best photographers of our time,” Instituto Terra said, as quoted by AP. “His lens revealed the world and its contradictions; his life brought the power of transformative action.”
Salgado’s life and work were shown in the 2014 documentary The Salt of the Earth, co-directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders and Salgado’s son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.
Born in 1944 in Aimorés, a small town in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, Salgado originally trained as an economist and moved to France in 1969 during Brazil’s military dictatorship. He began working as a full-time photographer in 1973. He became known for his work in black-and-white photography, focusing on labour, migration, poverty and the environment.
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His major projects include Workers, which captured manual labour across the globe, Exodus (also known as Migrations or Sahel), which showed people fleeing their homes, and Amazonia, his most recent series focused on the Amazon rainforest.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who had long received Salgado’s support, called for a minute of silence in Brasília in his honour. “Salgado did not only use his eyes and his camera to portray people: he also used the fullness of his soul and his heart,” the president said, as quoted by AP. “His work served as a wake-up call for the conscience of all humanity.”
Salgado and his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, spent decades working on reforestation in Brazil. In 1998, they created Instituto Terra to promote environmental restoration and education. The couple also founded the photo agency Amazonas Images to manage his work.
Salgado received several awards during his career. He became an honorary member of the US Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and joined the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2016.
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“He leaves behind a monumental body of work,” said French composer Alain Petitgirard, secretary of the Academy, in a statement reported by AP.
Composer François-Bernard Mâche, who collaborated with Salgado on a Paris exhibition, told AP, “His gaze transformed landscapes… With him, photography fulfilled one of its highest ambitions by going far beyond mere appearances.”
Salgado is survived by his wife and two sons, Juliano and Rodrigo. His recent health problems led him to cancel a public event in Reims, France, where he was due to attend an exhibition featuring his son Rodrigo’s work.
In an interview with Forbes Brasil shortly before his death, Salgado said: “How many times in my life have I put my camera to the side and sat down to cry? Sometimes it was too dramatic, and I was alone. That’s the power of the photographer; to be able to be there.”
Award-winning Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado dies at age 81
Sebastião Salgado, known for his award-winning images of nature and humanity, died at 81. He contracted a particular form of malaria in 2010 in Indonesia while working on his Genesis project. Fifteen years later, complications from this illness developed into severe leukemia, which ultimately took his life. Salgado had his life and work portrayed in the documentary film “The Salt of the Earth’ (2014), co-directed by Wim Wenders and his son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. He received a number of awards, and was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States in 1992 and to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2016. He and his wife had been working since the 1990s to restore part of the Atlantic Forest in Minas Gerais state, Brazil, which they turned into a plot of land for environmental education and education. His main works include the recent “Amazonia” series, “Workers,” which shows manual labor around the world, and “Exodus” (also known as “Migrations” or “Sahel”)
“Through the lens of his camera, Sebastião tirelessly fought for a more just, humane, and ecological world,” Salgado’s family said in a statement. “As a photographer who traveled the globe continuously, he contracted a particular form of malaria in 2010 in Indonesia while working on his Genesis project. Fifteen years later, complications from this illness developed into severe leukemia, which ultimately took his life.”
Earlier, Instituto Terra, which was founded by Salgado and his wife, and the French Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was a member, informed his death, but did not provide details on the circumstances or where he died.
FILE – Photographer Sebastiao Salgado waves to photographers during the presentation of his exhibition, ‘Kuwait: A Desert on Fire’, at the Galleria Meravigli, in Milan, Italy, Oct. 20, 2017. Salgado, known for his long-term projects and images of nature and humanity, died at age 81, the Instituto Terra confirmed on Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
“Sebastião was more than one of the best photographers of our time,” Instituto Terra said in a statement. “His lens revealed the world and its contradictions; his life, (brought) the power of transformative action.”
One of Brazil’s most famous artists, though he always insisted he was a photographer first, Salgado had his life and work portrayed in the documentary film “The Salt of the Earth” (2014), co-directed by Wim Wenders and his son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.
‘An authentic and warm man’
He received a number of awards, and was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States in 1992 and to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2016.
“I pay tribute to the memory of an exceptional man — remarkable for his moral integrity, his charisma, and his commitment to serving art. He leaves behind a monumental body of work,” composer Petitgirard, secretary of the French Academy of Fine Arts, said in a statement.
François-Bernard Mâche, a major French composer who worked with Salgado for his exhibition “Aqua Mater” in Paris, said the Brazilian was an “authentic and warm man”.
“His gaze transformed landscapes, and beyond the spectacular, he reached a kind of inner truth (…). With him, photography fulfilled one of its highest ambitions by going far beyond mere appearances,” Mâche told The Associated Press.
Black and white
Born in 1944 in the city of Aimores, in the countryside of the Minas Gerais state in Brazil, Salgado moved to France in 1969 as Brazil endured a military dictatorship. He started to fully dedicate his time to photography in 1973, years after his economics degree.
His style is marked by black-and-white imagery, rich tonality, and emotionally charged scenarios. He had a particular interest in impoverished communities.
His main works include the recent “Amazonia” series, “Workers,” which shows manual labor around the world, and “Exodus” (also known as “Migrations” or “Sahel”), which documents people in transit, including refugees and slum residents.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who received Salgado’s support throughout his political career, requested a minute of silence during a ceremony in the capital city of Brasilia to honor “one of the greatest, if not the greatest, photographer the world has ever produced.”
“His nonconformity with the fact that the world is so unequal and his stubborn talent in portraying the reality of the oppressed always served as a wake-up call for the conscience of all humanity,” Lula said. “Salgado did not only use his eyes and his camera to portray people: he also used the fullness of his soul and his heart.”
Love for the Amazon
Salgado and his wife had been working since the 1990s to restore part of the Atlantic Forest in Minas Gerais. In 1998, they turned a plot of land they owned into a nature reserve, according to Salgado’s biography on the French Academy of Fine Arts’ website. That same year, they created Instituto Terra, which promotes reforestation and environmental education.
Salgado and his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, founded Amazonas Images, an agency that exclusively handles his work.
He is also survived by his sons Juliano and Rodrigo.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, which published several of Salgado’s works over the last decades, said he recently cancelled a meeting with journalists in the French city of Reims due to health problems. He was scheduled to attend an exhibition with works by his son Rodrigo for a church in the same city on Saturday, the daily reported.
An exhibition of about 400 of Salgado’s works is currently on display in the city of Deauville, in northern France. In an undated interview with Forbes Brasil published on Thursday, Salgado said that attending it felt like a stroll through his life.
“How many times in my life have I put my camera to the side and sat down to cry? Sometimes it was too dramatic, and I was alone. That’s the power of the photographer; to be able to be there,” Salgado said. “If a photographer is not there, there’s no image. We need to be there. We expose ourselves a lot. And that is why it is such an immense privilege.”
___ AP journalists Eléonore Hughes in Rio de Janeiro and John Leicester in Paris contributed.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/23/a-lens-on-poverty-and-the-environment-sebastiao-salgado-is-dead-at-age-81