Sebastião Salgado: Photographic icon passes away at the age of 81

Contents

The world-famous Brazilian photographer and committed environmental activist Sebastião Salgado died in Paris on May 23, 2025 at the age of 81. With his passing, photography has lost one of its most influential personalities of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

From economist to photographer

Born on February 8, 1944 in Aimorés, Brazil, Salgado's path initially led him to economics, in which he completed his doctorate in Paris. After emigrating to France in 1969 with his wife Lélia, a business trip to Africa revealed his true calling: photography. This rekindled passion prompted him to give up his promising career as an economist in 1973 and devote himself entirely to his photographic work.

Salgado's unmistakable black and white photographs are characterized by a deep intensity and masterful, often dramatic compositions. In his monumental long-term projects, he dedicated himself to central humanitarian and ecological themes such as work, migration and the devastating consequences of environmental destruction. His opus "Workers" (1993) impressively portrayed people performing hard physical labor around the globe. His iconic images of the Serra Pelada gold mine in Brazil gained him worldwide fame as early as 1986.

This was followed in the 1990s by the project "Migrations" (Exodus, 2000), for which Salgado documented the fate of refugees and displaced persons in over 40 countries. A profound personal experience, shaped by the horrors he had witnessed, led to a reorientation: Salgado turned to untouched nature. The result was the monumental project "Genesis" (2004–2013), a photographic homage to the last paradisiacal corners of the earth, its wildlife and indigenous peoples who still live in harmony with nature.

Environmental commitment

In addition to his photographic work, Salgado's commitment to environmental protection was just as important. Together with his wife Lélia, he founded the Instituto Terra in 1998. With tireless efforts, they succeeded in reforesting his family's estate in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, which had once been devastated by deforestation, by planting over three million trees and transforming it into a thriving ecosystem. This area was later placed under state protection as a national park. Salgado also campaigned vehemently for the protection of indigenous peoples, for example by supporting a campaign for the Awá in Brazil.

Awards and criticism

Sebastião Salgado has been honored with numerous international awards for his outstanding work and humanitarian commitment, including the prestigious Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2019, the first photographer to receive this award. Despite this widespread recognition, he has also faced criticism; he has sometimes been accused of "aestheticizing misery". Salgado always defended his work and emphasized that his photographs could often only hint at the reality of suffering and fell short of the actual harshness of reality.

Salgado maintained a deep connection to his family. In particular, his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado was not only his life partner, but also a congenial partner in his artistic work and his environmental activism. In 2010, Salgado fell ill with a severe form of malaria. He was later diagnosed with leukemia, to which he now succumbed.

Legacy

Sebastião Salgado's photographic work remains a powerful visual appeal to perceive the world – its beauty and its wounds – with open eyes and to take responsibility. His life and work were impressively honored in 2014 by director Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, the photographer's son, in the award-winning documentary "The Salt of the Earth". His legacy will inspire generations of photographers and viewers.

(tho)