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The Wire
03-06-2025
- General
- The Wire
Legends Never Die – In Praise of Sebastiao Salgado, Who Brought Humanity to his Photographs
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Top Stories Legends Never Die – In Praise of Sebastiao Salgado, Who Brought Humanity to his Photographs Pablo Bartholomew 6 minutes ago A personal tribute by an Indian photographer and admirer who saw him work closely in Rajasthan. Photographer Sebastiao Salgado on a shoot at the Indira Gandhi canal project work site in western Rajasthan. His son Juliano is behind him. Photo: Pablo Bartholomew. Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now In 1967, Cornell Capa, the American photojournalist and brother of the legendary Robert Capa (one of the founders of Magnum Photos), organised an exhibition titled 'The Concerned Photographer'. The exhibition showcased the work of six impactful photojournalists, demonstrating how their socially engaged photography educates and inspires social change rather than simply chronicling events. In 1969, Sebastiao Salgado was still studying Economics in Brazil as the military dictatorship reigned in his country. Because of his activism, he became a political refugee in France. There, in Paris, he finished his PhD in Economic and began working with the International Coffee Organization as a consultant. He frequently travelled to Africa to examine coffee plantations. Those were transformative years for him as he witnessed economic and social inequalities. Finding his awakening in photography, he transformed himself into a photojournalist around 1973-74, at the time Cornell Capa created the International Center of Photography (ICP) to foster and support the 'Concerned Photographer' concept through gallery, museum, and educational programs. There is no definitive way to determine whether the Concerned Photographer exhibition or the establishment of ICP had an impact on Salgado but this era marked the peak and golden age of photojournalism and magazine photography. Salgado, who started as a photojournalist, worked the grind, doing stories and assignments in colour, and moved between agencies such as Sygma and Gamma before joining Magnum Photos, which gave him more space to abandon colour, allowing him to shoot only in black and white. This decision, made in an era when everything was in colour, was a testament to his exceptional conviction and courage. It must have been tough to turn down assignments that were offered and take a career risk. Still, Salgado's boldness in going against the grain, even if it narrowed his publishing chances, was driven by his conviction to be able to see and communicate a visual language the way he wanted to. Salgado used books and exhibitions as an outlet for self-expression; at least in those days, it was still fashionable and lucrative to create coffee table-size books with large print runs. However, he and Leila, his wife, controlled the layout and narrative, with publishers offering high advances and royalties. Within the Gallery world, he could command a high price for his prints, mostly limited editions but also some open editions – this was an unconventional path. Typically, the gallery system employs a limited-edition approach, offering a finite, predetermined set of prints for each photograph to create value and exclusivity. These addressed the argument that photography, unlike painting or sculpture, can be mass-reproduced, thus losing uniqueness. Salgado signed but did not number his prints, and even for his open edition photographs, the starting prices range from USD 10,000 for the smallest print size, though he offered multiple sizes. In 1985, both Salgado and I were awarded multiple prizes by the World Press Photo contest, which, in the last century, had significant relevance in selecting some of the finest imagery created by documentary photographers and photojournalists. Salgado, who was a member of Magnum Photos, was awarded first prize in the 12-image story category for General News, News Features, and the Oskar Barnack Award for his coverage of the famine in Ethiopia. I won the World Press Photo of the Year and the first prize for spot news for my image from Bhopal, which was taken at that time with the Gamma-Liaison Network. So, this is the first time I was exposed to his work. By the late 1980s, Salgado was already well-known for his long-form photo stories, and Time Magazine assigned me to shoot him in the winter of 1989 while he was photographing the Jaisalmer area of Rajasthan for his Workers Project. Here, I chanced to meet the elder son, a young Juliano, who accompanied Salgado on the site of the Indira Gandhi Canal in Rajasthan. It was interesting watching him work. I wrapped up my shooting with him on location quite quickly so as not to be in his way. I understood that his time was his own, and I was an intrusion. I'm not sure if photographers like to be photographed by others; at least I don't. We would have conversations during his breaks, and towards the end of the day, I parted to head back to Delhi; it was a five-hour drive, an overnight hotel stay to catch a morning Indian Airline hopping flight to Delhi and at Delhi airport itself ship my film after customs clearance, off to New York on a Pan Am flight. More recently, I heard a story from a colleague about his cousin, who was the head of the construction company responsible for the Rajasthan end of the canal works. The colleague also added that his cousin, as a thank you, received a large print from Salgado as a gesture of appreciation for his help. Salgado had approached him for access to the site, and the one standout condition was that he did not want any official accompanying him but wanted to work alone. And that is how I found him on location, with three Leica SLR cameras around his neck and one shoulder bag, which was unlike a camera bag. On one of the cameras, he had a small portable tripod screwed on that acted as a shoulder brace. After the World Press Awards, I spent a lot of time in France. In one of the years at the Visa pour l'Image, the photojournalism festival in the South of France, as I was exiting the courtyard of the Pams Hotel, a 19th-century historic building and one of the main festival venues, Salgado was standing by the courtyard door in conversation with someone. Our eyes met, and he hailed me. We exchanged some words, and involuntarily, and he wrote down his phone number and address in Paris, telling me to get in touch with him. I thanked him and walked down the curved stairwell with the group I was with, but I never made it to Paris on that trip and subsequently lost that piece of paper. In the following years, I encountered him at exhibitions, book launches, and other photography gatherings in Paris. On one of these occasions, he introduced me to his wife, Leila and mentioned that she was the powerhouse behind him. Most meetings were unplanned, if not accidental, and through them, I think you can develop a different friendship and relationship without having to live out of each other's pockets. By 1994, Leila and he had founded Amazonas Images, the agency that allowed him to complete creative independence over his work and the way the images were distributed. The Worker's Project was implemented under this new system, allowing him to examine the challenges of manual labour worldwide across various industries, including mining, agriculture, and oil, while travelling to 26 countries. To list a few of these – Brazil: Gold Miners in Serra Pelada, Kuwait: Oil Workers battling fires after the Gulf War, Rwanda: Tea plantation workers, Indonesia: Sulphur miners in Ljen, and India: Canal workers in Rajasthan. This culminated in an exhibition and book in 1993. It is my favourite among his works and probably garnered him the most attention, cementing his legacy as a master photographer with major media outlets, from The New York Times to The Sunday Times Magazine, running large spreads. Having travelled to over 120 countries, exploring and seeking his concerns, and trained as an economist with left-leaning views helped his quest throughout the world and especially within his own country, leading him to produce vast bodies of photographs that are unparalleled in their scale. Often, projects would take years to complete. Salgado's dedication to his work serves as a model for younger photographers. To name a few of his projects that are important to me, 'Migrations' – a seven-year project documenting mass displacement across 35 countries, 'Genesis' – a global exhibition and a book showcasing Salgado's eight-year journey documenting pristine nature in which he describes it as a 'love letter to the planet,' emphasising the need for conservation and respect for nature; and 'Amazônia' – a tribute to the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous communities. In 2009, I received an invitation from the Brazilian Ambassador in New Delhi to visit his residence on Aurangzeb Road to meet Salgado there. I remember an eager Salgado, getting excited over a drink wanting to buy a Royal Enfield in New Delhi and ship it back to Paris and about the idea of driving it around Paris with Leila, roaring through the streets. At 65, a very different Salgado, a teenager, emerged that day. What impressed me was Leila, his lifelong collaborator who designed his books, curated his exhibitions, co-founded and ran his photo agency Amazonas Images, oversaw his fine art print production jointly. She has been a partner not just in his photography but also the co-founder of environmental projects at Instituto Terra and leading a reforestation project of over 1700 acres of land by planting millions of trees. His elder son, Juliano, years later flourished into a documentary filmmaker, collaborating with Wim Wenders on the film The Salt of the Earth (2014) about his father and his work. Leila produced the film, which won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and was nominated for an Academy Award, amongst other accolades. So, the family was a solid force to keep him going in his active days, and later, when he slowed down due to his illness, he focused on more environmental advocacy rather than being in the field. But not all was always well on his work front. His last exhibition, Amazônia, closed at the Royal Dockyard Museum on April 20, 2025 and drew criticism for exoticising and romanticising the indigenous communities of his country. He was also criticised for showing too much nakedness, which for decades the National Geographic Magazine was also accused of, of showing ethnographic and anthropological work as 'tribal porn' to middle America. This is an ongoing debate about whether an outsider can accurately depict a community's people, and these conversations will continue. But whatever the criticism, one thing is clear: it is the photography of a highly sensitive mind; these images will remain as a testament to time. Salgado was tragically taken away from the world of photography much before his time on May 23, 2025. The news made headlines around the world. He was a victim of the occupational hazard of being a photographer, who can often face illness and death in the field. In his case, it was complications from leukemia, which was linked to a rare, fatal type of malaria, which he had contracted in Indonesia in 2010 while working on his Genesis project. As the condition progressed, he could have perhaps totally overcome it had he followed his doctor's advice and rested for the months that he was asked to. But restless to move, he broke his recuperation period. Sebastiao Salgado remains every inch the concerned and humanist photographer whose work and contribution to photography will remain etched forever. Pablo Bartholomew is a renowned artist and photographer with a practice of nearly five decades. He has held over 30 solo exhibitions since 1979, including at galleries, museums, and biennales. His work has been featured in major international publications and won awards, including the World Press Photo Award for Picture of the Year 1985, which was captured during the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. He received the Padma Shri in 2013 and Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2014. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. 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Irish Independent
01-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Obituary: Sebastiao Salgado, award-winning Brazilian photographer and social documentarian
Today at 21:30 Sebastiao Salgado, who has died aged 81, was an award-winning Brazilian photographer and social documentarian whose work took him to 130 countries and landscapes from the Amazon to Antarctica. Labour, migration, starvation, drought and displacement were his themes, along with the devastating impact of war that led him to take a pause before focusing on the environment and effects of climate change.
Observer
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Observer
Sebastiao Salgado, photojournalism elevated to art
Brazilian photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado, who died Friday, spent five decades chronicling the best and worst of planet Earth, from far-flung natural wonders to horrifying human catastrophes. The self-taught photographer crisscrossed the globe throughout his life, from Rwanda to Guatemala, from Indonesia to Bangladesh, documenting famine, war, exodus, exploitation and other tragedies of the so-called Third World with the empathy of "someone who comes from the same part of the world," as he said. His elegant black-and-white universe also celebrated the planet's immense beauty, such as the "flying rivers" of the Amazon rainforest, and served as a warning of nature's fragility in the face of climate change. Sebastiao Salgado, photojournalism elevated to art Sebastiao Salgado, photojournalism elevated to art He leaves an iconic body of work, published in "Life," "Time" and other leading magazines, collected in a stunning series of books, and regularly exhibited in the museums of world capitals such as Paris, where he lived for much of his life. Salgado won a long list of prestigious prizes across his career, including the Prince of Asturias and Hasselblad awards, and was the protagonist of filmmaker Wim Wenders' Oscar-nominated documentary "The Salt of the Earth" (2014), about the photographer's sojourns in distant corners such as the Arctic Circle and Papua New Guinea. Sebastiao Salgado, photojournalism elevated to art Sebastiao Salgado, photojournalism elevated to art - From Africa to Reagan - Born on February 8, 1944 in the rural county of Aimores in southeastern Brazil, Salgado grew up with seven sisters on their father's cattle farm. He recalled it as a place where visiting friends and family meant traveling for days, which he said taught him the patience to wait for the magical "fraction of a second" of the perfect photograph. He earned a master's degree in economics from the University of Sao Paulo, where he was active in the left-wing student movements of the turbulent 1960s. In 1969, he and his wife, Lelia Wanick, fled to France to escape Brazil's military dictatorship. He went on to receive French citizenship. He picked up Wanick's camera by chance one day in 1970 and was instantly hooked. "I realized snapshots brought me more pleasure than economic reports," he said. His job with the International Coffee Organization took him frequently to Africa, where he started taking pictures on the side. He would go on to turn down a dream job at the World Bank in Washington to pursue photography full-time. Wanick, who staunchly backed his career, stayed home raising their two sons, Juliano Ribeiro and Rodrigo, who was born with Down syndrome. Sebastiao Salgado, photojournalism elevated to art Sebastiao Salgado, photojournalism elevated to art Salgado's photos of drought and famine in countries such as Niger and Ethiopia landed him a job at renowned photo agency Magnum in 1979. He was working there when he captured one of the biggest news stories of the time, the assassination attempt on US president Ronald Reagan in 1981. Salgado made front pages worldwide with his photos of the shooting -- 76 frames in 60 seconds. But his true rise to fame came with his first book, "Other Americas" (1984) -- a series of portraits taken throughout Latin America -- and his unforgettable photographs of misery and resistance among the hordes of mud-covered miners at Brazil's infamous Serra Pelada, the biggest open-air gold mine in the world. Critics accused him of "beautifying suffering," but Salgado never veered from his aesthetic or his work. Sebastiao Salgado, photojournalism elevated to art Sebastiao Salgado, photojournalism elevated to art - Lens on Bolsonaro - Painstaking and meticulous, he liked to take his time getting to know his subjects, his three Leica cameras hanging from his neck. Photography "is a way of life," he told AFP in 2022, on a trip to Sao Paulo to present his exhibition "Amazonia," the product of seven years shooting the world's biggest rainforest. "It's connected with my ideology... my human and political activity. It all goes together." A dedicated climate activist, he was a fierce critic of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) for the far-right leader's push to open the Amazon to agribusiness and mining. Salgado also founded an environmental organization called Instituto Terra to revive disappearing forests in his home state, Minas Gerais, a successful project joined by more than 3,000 landowners. —AFP
Straits Times
26-05-2025
- General
- Straits Times
Sebastiao Salgado, acclaimed Brazilian photographer, dies at 81
Brazilian photojournalist Sebastiao Salgado among his works on show at the exhibition, Amazonia: Photographs By Sebastiao Salgado at the National Museum of Singapore, in November 2024. PHOTO: ST FILE Rio de Janeiro - Sebastiao Salgado, a celebrated Brazilian photographer whose striking images of humanity and nature in the Amazon rainforest and beyond won him some of the world's top honours and made him a household name, died on May 23 in Paris. He was 81. His death was announced by Instituto Terra, the environmental nonprofit that he and his wife founded in Brazil. His family cited leukemia as the cause, saying that Salgado had developed the illness after contracting a particular type of malaria in 2010 while working on a photography project in Indonesia. 'Through the lens of his camera, Sebastiao tirelessly fought for a more just, humane and ecological world,' Salgado's family said in a statement. 'Rich in humanistic content, this work offers a sensitive perspective on the most disadvantaged populations and addresses the environmental issues threatening our planet.' Working mostly in black and white, Salgado garnered widespread acclaim at home and abroad with his striking images of the natural world and the human condition, often travelling around the globe to photograph impoverished and vulnerable communities. In all, he worked in more than 120 countries throughout his career. Salgado was especially interested in the plight of workers and migrants, and spent decades documenting nature and people in the Amazon rainforest. He captured some of his most well-known images in 1986, when he photographed workers toiling in a gold mine in the northern Brazilian state of Para. The photo essay cemented Salgado's reputation as one of the star photographers of his time. In the 1980s, Salgado also moved audiences worldwide with a series of pictures depicting the famine in Ethiopia. That work earned him worldwide recognition and won some of photography's most prestigious awards. In 1991, while on assignment in Kuwait, Salgado photographed workers struggling to extinguish oil-well fires set by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's troops, an environmental disaster that came to define Iraq's turbulent retreat from Kuwait. 'The photos were beyond extraordinary,' said Ms Kathy Ryan, a former photo director at The New York Times Magazine, who worked with Salgado on that assignment. 'It was one of the best photo essays ever made.' His Kuwait photos were featured on the cover of the magazine. On another noteworthy assignment, Salgado documented dramatic scenes following a failed assassination attempt on then United States President Ronald Reagan in 1981. He photographed the gunman John Hinckley Jr, moments after he was tackled to the ground. 'Everyone knows he had an incredible way of making pictures,' Ms Ryan said. But, she added, he also had an uncanny sense of 'where important stories were'. Known for his intense blue-eyed gaze and his rapid way of speaking, Salgado was remembered by his colleagues as a defender of documenting the human condition who respected the people he photographed. He was at times criticised for cloaking human suffering and environmental catastrophe in a visually stunning aesthetic, but Salgado maintained that his way of capturing people was not exploitative. 'Why should the poor world be uglier than the rich world?' he asked in an interview with British newspaper The Guardian in 2024. 'The light here is the same as there. The dignity here is the same as there.' Over the course of his career, Salgado's work won some of photography's top prizes, including two Leica Oskar Barnack Awards and several World Press Photo awards. He was named an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2016. Sebastiao Ribeiro Salgado Jr was born on Feb 8, 1944, in Aimores, in the countryside of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The only son of a cattle-ranching family, he had seven sisters. While studying at university in the 1960s, he met his future wife Lelia Deluiz Wanick. When a military dictatorship came into power in Brazil a few years later, the couple moved to France. His wife survives him, as do two sons, Juliano and Rodrigo, and two grandchildren. An economist by training, Salgado discovered photography while working for the World Bank and travelling to Africa. He began his career as a freelance photographer in 1973 and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the most renowned photographers at the Magnum collective. In 1994, Salgado left Magnum to form his own agency together with his wife and longtime collaborator. He later spent years travelling across the Amazon. He captured arresting images of vast rivers and rainforests while also documenting the impact of human beings on natural landscapes and the Indigenous people fighting to preserve them. In the late 1990s, Salgado and his wife founded Instituto Terra in the region where he was born, with the aim of restoring the Atlantic Forest, which had been ravaged by human encroachment. Salgado's 'vision and humanity', American photographer and photojournalist Steve McCurry posted on Instagram, 'left an indelible mark on the world of photography'. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
French-Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado dies aged 81
Sebastiao Salgado, famed for his immense body of work depicting wildlife, landscapes and people around the world, died on May 23 aged 81. Photo: AFP French-Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, famed for his immense body of work depicting wildlife, landscapes and people around the world, died on Friday (May 23) aged 81, announced the French Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was a member. The academy said it was "deeply saddened to announce the death... of Sebastiao Salgado", describing him as a "great witness to the human condition and the state of the planet". It was his large black-and-white photographs of subjects such as conflicts or the Amazon rainforest that won Salgado the greatest fame and adorned calendars, books and the walls of his fans around the world. Critics accused him of beautifying suffering but Salgado never veered from his aesthetic or his work. "A photographer who travelled the world constantly, he contracted a particular form of malaria in 2010, in Indonesia," his family said in a statement to AFP. "Fifteen years later, the complications of this disease developed into severe leukaemia, which took his life," they added. 'Emblematic figure' Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described his compatriot as "one of the best... photographers the world has given us". Lula, who learned the news of Salgado's passing at an official event in Brasilia with Angolan counterpart Joao Lourenco, asked attendees to observed a minute's silence for the photographer. One of Salgado's contemporaries, US photographer Steve McCurry, wrote on Instagram that "his vision and humanity left an indelible mark on the world of photography". "Alongside (his wife) Lelia (Wanick), he not only documented the human condition with unmatched depth, but also helped heal the planet through their reforestation work," he added. Unesco Secretary General Audrey Azoulay saluted "an immense photographer, artist and documentarist whose talent captured the ecological and anthropological upheavals of our era. "His art raised public awareness of often unknown realities such as those of the Amazon and its indigenous peoples," she added in posts to social media. Paris-based media rights campaigners Reporters Without Borders (RSF) paid tribute to an "emblematic figure of documentary photography". "A photographer of all records, Sebastiao Salgado was a keen observer of mankind and nature," it added in a statement online. RSF noted that Salgado had contributed 100 of his own photos to one of the albums it sells to raise money for it works. 'Way of life' The photographer leaves a unique legacy of images from his hundreds of journeys through the Amazon rainforest and across the planet, from Rwanda to Indonesia, from Guatemala to Bangladesh, capturing with his lens human tragedies such as famine, wars and mass exoduses. Salgado conceived photography as "a powerful language to try to establish better relationships between humans and nature", said the French Academy of Fine Arts. He worked almost exclusively in black and white, which he saw as both an interpretation of reality and a way of conveying the fundamental dignity of humanity. Active in the left-wing student movements of the turbulent 1960s, he studied economics and in 1969, he and his wife fled to France to escape Brazil's military dictatorship. He went on to receive French citizenship. His photos of drought and famine in countries such as Niger and Ethiopia landed him a job at renowned photo agency Magnum in 1979. Photography "is a way of life," he told AFP in 2022, on a trip to Sao Paulo to present his exhibition Amazonia, the product of seven years shooting the world's biggest rainforest. A dedicated climate activist, he was a fierce critic of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022) for the far-right leader's push to open the Amazon to agribusiness and mining. Salgado also founded an environmental organisation called Instituto Terra to revive disappearing forests in his home state, Minas Gerais, a successful project joined by more than 3,000 landowners. - AFP
