Sebastião Salgado, Renowned Documentary Photographer, Dies at 81 in Paris

Sebastião Salgado, the acclaimed Brazilian documentary photographer, died on Friday, 23, in Paris. Born in Aimorés, Minas Gerais in 1944, Salgado's career spanned five decades, during which he captured the human condition across the globe through his distinctive black-and-white imagery. Trained as an economist with a master's degree from São Paulo and the United States, he moved to Paris in the late 1960s for political reasons. His photographic journey began in 1973 while working for the International Coffee Organization in Angola, using a camera borrowed from his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado. His work focused on marginalized communities, documenting subjects like famine victims in Africa, gold miners at Serra Pelada, landless workers in Brazil, and war casualties in Cambodia. Despite aesthetic criticism, his photographs were noted for their generosity and dignity. His legacy includes major series and books such as 'Outras Américas,' 'Trabalhadores,' 'Terra,' 'Êxodos,' 'Gênesis,' 'Amazonia,' and 'Gold (Serra Pelada),' often produced in collaboration with his wife, a graphic producer and environmentalist. His death marks the loss of a significant figure in 20th and 21st-century visual culture.