Salgado, Sebastião

Sebastião Salgado was born on February 8, 1944, in Aimorés, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. He lives in Paris. After studying economics, Salgado began his career as a professional photographer in 1973 in Paris, working with the photography agencies Sygma, Gamma, and Magnum Photos until 1994, when he and Lélia Wanick Salgado formed "Amazonas Images," an agency created exclusively for his work. He has traveled to over 100 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these, in addition to appearing in numerous press publications, have also been presented in books such as "Other Americas" (1986), "Sahel: Man in Distress" (1986), "Sahel: The End of the Road" (1988), "Workers" (1993), "Terra" (1997), "Migrations and Portraits" (2000), and "Africa" (2007). The traveling exhibitions of this work have been, and continue to be, presented worldwide. Sebastião Salgado has been awarded numerous important photography prizes in recognition of his achievements. He is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and an honorary member of the United States Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004, he began a project called "Genesis," with the aim of presenting the pristine faces of nature and humanity. It consists of a series of photographs of landscapes and wildlife, as well as human communities that continue to live according to their ancestral traditions and cultures. This body of work is conceived as a potential path for the rediscovery of humanity in nature.