Internationally-renowned photographer Sebastião Salgado spent years documenting the vast lungs of the Earth that stretch through his native country of Brazil and neighboring nations. “Amazônia” is his ongoing comprehensive survey of isolated indigenous communities, wildlife, and the aerial landscapes of the untouched regions of the Amazon. In conversation with VII Photo Agency Mentor Program photographer Leonardo Carrato, Salgado talks about the challenges involved in multi-national and global long-term projects, and the importance of photography as a powerful tool for change, citing real-world examples where it has made a difference.

Sebastião Salgado was born in Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil and now lives in Paris. A trained economist, he began his career as a photographer in Paris in 1973. He worked successively with the agencies Sygma, Gamma and Magnum Photos until 1994 when, together with Lélia Wanick Salgado, they founded the photographic press agency, Amazonas images, exclusively devoted to their work. Salgado has travelled to more than 100 countries for photographic projects that, in addition to countless publications in the press, were published as books, with conception and design by Lélia Wanick Salgado. These titles include Other Americas (1986), Sahel, l’Homme en détresse (1986), Workers (1993), Earth (1997), Exodus and Portraits of Children of the Exodus (2000), Africa (2007), and Genesis (2013). In 2015, he published the book Perfume de Sonho, a trip to the world of coffee. The book Da minha terra à Terra (2014) tells the origins of his work. His most recent books include Kuwait, A Desert on Fire (2016), in 2019, Gold, Serra Pelada Gold Mine. Traveling exhibitions of these works have been and continue to be presented internationally. The vast majority of these exhibitions were curated by Lélia Wanick Salgado. Sebastião Salgado has also received numerous awards for his photography. He is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and an honorary member of the United States Academy of Arts and Science. He received the commendation of the “Order of the Rio Branco in Brazil” and is “Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. On April 13, 2016, he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts de l’Institut de France, assuming the chair previously occupied by photographer Lucien Clergue. In that same year also in France, he was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor. He received the Itamaraty Cultural Diplomacy Award from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the Brazilian Embassy in Paris. In 2016, in Brazil, he was appointed Doctor Honoris Causa, Federal University of Espirito Santo. He was also recently elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in the USA, and was honored with the German Free Trade Peace Prize.