Brazil and the global photography community mourn the loss of Sebastião Salgado, one of the most revered visual storytellers of our time. The renowned Brazilian photojournalist passed away this Friday (23), aged 81, in Paris, where he lived for decades. The news was confirmed by Instituto Terra, the environmental organization he co-founded with his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Born Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Júnior in the rural town of Aimorés, Minas Gerais, in 1944, Salgado’s journey was anything but linear. Trained as an economist, he earned a PhD in Paris before turning to photography at age 29. That pivot would take him across more than 120 countries and earn him global acclaim for his emotionally resonant black-and-white images that documented everything from famine and forced migration to the resilience of Indigenous communities and the beauty of untouched nature.
In 2022, Salgado spoke to CNN about what would become one of his final major exhibitions: “Amazônia.” Shown in cities like Paris, London, Rome, and São Paulo, the immersive event featured 194 photographs and a powerful audio-visual experience that captured the vastness of the Amazon rainforest and the spiritual presence of its people. “Amazônia deeply impacted me,” he said at the time, reinforcing his lifelong commitment to environmental and cultural preservation.
Salgado’s legacy isn’t only photographic—it’s planetary. In 1998, alongside Lélia, he founded Instituto Terra, a nonprofit dedicated to the reforestation of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. The couple’s work transformed a degraded landscape into a lush ecological reserve, offering a living metaphor for the regenerative potential of both art and activism.
His life and philosophy were immortalized in the 2014 documentary The Salt of the Earth, co-directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders and Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. The film won a special prize at Cannes and earned an Academy Award nomination, introducing new generations to the man behind the lens.
With his passing, Brazil loses more than a photographer—it loses a witness to its soul. Salgado’s camera illuminated the dignity in struggle, the poetry in survival, and the urgency of preservation. His images remain not just in museums and books, but in our collective conscience.
Rest in light, Sebastião. Your vision changed how we see the world.
