Sebastião Salgado – Profile

Sebastião Salgado is one of the outstanding contemporary documentary photographers. Born in Brazil he studied economics before becoming a professional photographer in 1973 working with leading photo agencies Sygma, Gamma, and Magnum Photos until 1994 when he founded Amazonas images with his wife Lélia Wanick. Along with photo-essays his body of work has concentrated on long term and detailed explorations of global concerns necessitating trips to numerous countries. The resulting photographs from these projects are published in award winning books and exhibitions including Other Americas (1986), Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age (1993), Terra (1997), Migrations (2000) Portraits (2000), Sahel: The End of the Road (2004), and Africa (2010). His work is predominantly high contrast black and white photographs which is a part of the concerned documentary tradition.

Below, watch Documentary Photographer and professor Ken Light discuss some of Salgado's images. Video from KQED on demand.

Related Links

Amazonas: an agency exclusively devoted to the work of the Photographer Sebastião Salgado

UNICEF page devoted to Salgado's Photographs

Interview with Salgado in the New York Times

"The Photographer as an Activist," watch Salgado in conversation with photography professor Ken Light