Sebastião Salgado
Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior (8 February 1944 – 23 May 2025) was a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. Salgado traveled in more than 120 countries for his photographic projects, which appeared in numerous press publications and books. Touring exhibitions of his work have been presented throughout the world.
Also recorded as Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado · Sebasuchan Sarugado · Sebastiao Salgado · Sebastio Salgado
Sebastião Salgado

Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil · http: agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/foto/2016-10/camara-de-comercio-franca-brasil-premia-sebastiao-salgado · CC BY 3.0 br
- Name
- Sebastião Salgado
- Birth Name
- Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior
- Born
- 8 February 1944
- Birthplace
- Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Died
- 23 May 2025
- Place of death
- Paris, France
- Occupation
- Social documentary photographer
- Spouse
- Lélia Wanick Salgado
- Nationality
- Brazil · France
- Fields
- natural environment · photography · black-and-white photography · documentary photography
- Education
- University of Paris · University of São Paulo · Federal University of Espírito Santo
- Honours
- Hasselblad Award · Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts · Dr. Erich Salomon Prize · Cherry Kearton Medal and Award · Oskar Barnack Award · Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography
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Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior (8 February 1944 – 23 May 2025) was a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist. Salgado traveled in more than 120 countries for his photographic projects, which appeared in numerous press publications and books. Touring exhibitions of his work have been presented throughout the world.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q358158 · wikipedia · Sebastião Salgado
In this article
Biography
Biography
He was a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He was awarded the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant in 1982, Foreign Honorary Membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992; and the Royal Photographic Society's Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in 1993. He was a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts at the Institut de France since April 2016.
Sebastião Salgado studied at University of Paris, University of São Paulo and Federal University of Espírito Santo. The recorded working language is French, English and Portuguese. The field of work recorded is natural environment, photography and black-and-white photography. Places of work recorded in the authority are Paris. Positions recorded include UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Work by Sebastião Salgado is recorded in the collections of Städel Museum, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Art Institute of Chicago, Minneapolis Institute of Art and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Distinctions recorded are Hasselblad Award, Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, Dr.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Sebastião Salgado • Birth Name — Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior • Born — 8 February 1944 • Birthplace — Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil • Died — 23 May 2025 • Place of death — Paris, France • Occupation — Social documentary photographer • Spouse — Lélia Wanick Salgado • Children — 2, including Juliano Ribeiro • Website — https: institutoterra.org/
Early life and education
Early life and education
Sebastião Salgado was born on 8 February 1944, in Aimorés, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. After a somewhat itinerant childhood, Salgado trained as an economist, earning a BA degree from the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES); a master's degree from the University of São Paulo, in 1968; and a PhD from the University of Paris, in 1971. He began work as an economist for the International Coffee Organization and often traveled to Africa on missions for the World Bank.
Environmentalism
Environmentalism
• Illustration — Reforestation of Fazenda Bulcão, or Bulcão Farm, by Instituto Terra Together, Lélia and Sebastião worked since the 1990s on the restoration of a part of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. In 1998, they succeeded in turning 17000 acre into a nature reserve and created the Instituto Terra. The institute is dedicated to a mission of reforestation, conservation and environmental education. Book publisher Taschen supports the institute to plant one tree for each book they sell.
Personal life and death
Personal life and death
Salgado was married to Lélia Wanick Salgado and had two children, including Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. On a 2010 trip to Indonesian New Guinea, Salgado contracted falciparum malaria, which permanently impaired his bone-marrow function. Salgado died in Paris on 23 May 2025, at the age of 81. His death was announced by Instituto Terra on the following day.
Filmography
Filmography
• The Salt of the Earth (2014). Documentary about and with Salgado, directed by Wim Wenders and Salgado's son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
• Illustration — View of Salgado's Genesis exhibition in 2014 • Genesis, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, 2013; Natural History Museum, London, 2013; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, 2013–14; National Museum of Singapore, 2014; Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2014; Fotografiska Stockholm, 2014; Palazzo della Ragione, Milan, Italy, 2014; International Center of Photography, New York City, 2014–15; CaixaForum Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2014–15; Sejong Center, Seoul, South Korea, 2014–15; Cordoaria Nacional, Lisbon, Portugal, 2015; CaixaForum Palma, Palma, Spain, 2015; Amerika Haus Berlin, Berlin, 2015; Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China, 2015; Kunstfoyer, Munich, Germany, 2015–16; Prague Castle, Prague, Czech Republic, 2017; Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2017 • Déclaration, Musée de l'Homme, Paris, 2018–19 • Gold, Fotografiska Stockholm, 2019; Fotografiska Tallinn, 2020. • Amazônia, Philharmonie de Paris, 2021; Science Museum, London, 2021–22; Science and Industry Museum, Manchester, UK, 2022 MAXXI, Rome, 2021–22; Serviço Social do Comércio, Sao Paulo, 2022–23; Museum of Tomorrow, Rio de Janeiro, 2021–22; California Science Center, Los Angeles, 2022, Teatro Fernán Gómez, Madrid, 2023–24. • In 2025, Fotografiska Shanghai presented Retrospective, the first major posthumous retrospective of Sebastião Salgado, bringing together works from across his career including Other Americas, Sahel, Workers, Migrations, and Genesis.
Identity and origins
Identity and origins
The authorities additionally record the headings Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado, Sebasuchan Sarugado, Sebastiao Salgado, Sebastio Salgado and Sebastiao Ribeiro Salgado. His recorded languages were French, English and Portuguese. His recorded confession was Christianity. He married Lélia Wanick Salgado. One child is recorded: Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.
Career and activity
Career and activity
Sebastião Salgado worked in natural environment, photography, black-and-white photography, documentary photography and photojournalism. Recorded position is UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He belonged to American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Académie des beaux-arts. He worked at Paris.
Identity
Identity
Sebastião Salgado is recorded as having received Hasselblad Award, Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts and Dr. Erich Salomon Prize. Within the Encyclopedia. Connected to 2 other published records in the VALÉORINE Encyclopedia.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1944–2025
The full dated record · 3 entries
1944
Sebastião Salgado born at Aimorés.
2013
Sebastião Salgado: The silent drama of photography (TED).
2025
Sebastião Salgado died at Neuilly-sur-Seine.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Aimorés.
Birth place
Neuilly-sur-Seine.
Death place
Publications
• Illustration — Salgado (left) gives Brazilian president Lula da Silva his new book in 2006, during Lula's first presidency. • An Uncertain Grace. Essays by Eduardo Galeano and Fred Ritchin. • * • * • Workers: Archaeology of the Industrial Age. • * • * • * * * • * • The Children: Refugees and Migrants. New York: Aperture, 2000.. • Sahel: The End of the Road. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2004.. • Africa. Cologne: Taschen, 2007.. • Genesis. Cologne: Taschen, 2013.. • From my Land to the Planet. Roma: Contrasto, 2014.. • The Scent of a Dream: Travels in the World of Coffee. New York: Abrams, 2015.. • Kuwait. A Desert on Fire. Cologne: Taschen, 2016.. • Gold. Cologne: Taschen, 2019. Edited by Lélia Wanick Salgado.. • Amazônia. Cologne: Taschen, 2021. Edited by Lélia Wanick Salgado..
Photography
It was on his travels to Africa that Salgado first started seriously taking photographs. He chose to abandon a career as an economist and switched to photography in 1973, working initially on news assignments before veering more towards documentary-type work. Salgado initially worked with the photo agency Sygma and the Paris-based Gamma, but in 1979, he joined the international cooperative of photographers Magnum Photos. He left Magnum in 1994 and with his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado formed his own agency, Amazonas Images, in Paris, to represent his work. He is particularly noted for his social documentary photography of workers in less developed nations. His work resides in Paris. Salgado worked on long-term, self-assigned projects, many of which have been published as books: The Other Americas, Sahel, Workers, Migrations, and Genesis. The aforementioned three are mammoth collections with hundreds of images each from all around the world. His most famous pictures are of a gold mine in Brazil called Serra Pelada, taken between 1986 and 1989. He was also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2001. Between 2004 and 2011, Salgado worked on Genesis, aiming at the presentation of the unblemished faces of nature and humanity. It consists of a series of photographs of landscapes and wildlife, as well as of human communities that continue to live in accordance with their ancestral traditions and cultures. This body of work is conceived as a potential path to humanity's rediscovery of itself in nature. In September and October 2007, Salgado displayed his photographs of coffee workers from India, Guatemala, Ethiopia, and Brazil at the Brazilian Embassy in London. The aim of the project was to raise public awareness of the origins of the popular drink. Salgado photographed the landscape and people of the Amazon rainforest (Amazônia) in Brazil. Salgado's work has been described by Andrei Netto of The Guardian as an "instantly recognisable combination of black-and-white composition and dramatic lighting". Salgado and his work are the focus of the film The Salt of the Earth (2014), directed by Wim Wenders and Salgado's son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, and produced by Lélia Wanick Salgado.
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Sebastião Salgado received Hasselblad Award, Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, Dr. Erich Salomon Prize, Cherry Kearton Medal and Award, Oskar Barnack Award and Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography.
Awards
Awards
• 1982: W. Eugene Smith Grant from the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund • 1985: Oskar Barnack Award • 1989: Hasselblad Award, Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg, Sweden • 1992: Oskar Barnack Award • 1992: Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences • 1993: Centenary Medal from the Royal Photographic Society • 1993: Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) from the Royal Photographic Society • 1994: Grand Prix National French Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Culture (France) • 1998: Prince of Asturias Awards, Arts category • 1988: King of Spain International Journalism Award • 2003: International Award from the Photographic Society of Japan • 2007: M2-El Mundo People's Choice Award for best exhibition a PhotoEspaña, for Africa • 2019: Peace Prize of the German Book Trade • 2021: Crystal Award, World Economic Forum • 2021: Praemium Imperiale • 2024: Outstanding Contribution to Photography Sony World Photography Awards
Honours
Honours
• Brazil: Commander of the Order of Rio Branco (2004) • France: Knight of the Legion of Honour (2016) • France: Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2014) • Monaco: Knight of the Order of Cultural Merit (Monaco) (2018)
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q358158: Sebastião SalgadoWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Studied at
1- University of São PauloOrganisation
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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