Sebastião Salgado (Brazilian, born )

Sebastião Salgado (Brazilian, b.1944) is a documentary photographer and photojournalist best known for his work covering Africa and Latin America and his collaborations with humanitarian organizations. He was working on a PhD in agricultural economics and working for the International Coffee Organization in Africa when he began taking photographs and decided to become a professional photojournalist. His first assignments were for the Sygma and Gamma agencies, including a long essay about the peasants of Latin America, published as the book Other Americas in 1986. His book Workers, published in 1993, encompasses a larger project of documenting industrial laborers across 23 countries. His next project, Migrations, begun in 1993 and published in 2005, features peoples from 43 countries who moved from the countryside to cities. In 1984, Salgado began a series of photographs documenting the African famine for exhibitions and two books to support the organization Doctors Without Borders. He has received several awards, including the W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography, and is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He currently lives in Paris.

Timeline

1944
Born on February 8, 1944 in Aimorés in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil
1973
Began his career as a professional photographer in Paris
1982
W. Eugene Smith Award for Humanitarian Photography, USA (Ethiopian Famine)
1982
Award for continuing the project on the Latin American peasants, Ministry of Culture, France
1984
Prix de la Ville de Paris et Kodak, for a first photographic book, Other Americas, France
1985
World Press Photo Award, Holland
1988
Photographic Journalist of the Year by the International Center of Photography, USA
1989
Erna and Victor Hasselblad Award, for life achievement, Sweden
1991
World Press Photo Award winner, Oskar Barnack individual Award
1993
Featured in People Magazine
1993
Prize for the Best Photography Book of the Year, for Workers, Arles International Festival, France
1998
Founded Instituto Terra to promote reforestation and environmental education
2001
Appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador

Literature

2007
Africa, Taschen
2005
An Uncertain Grace, Aperture
2004
Genesis, Taschen
2000
Migrations: Humanity in Transition, Aperture
2000
The Children, Aperture
1997
Terra: Struggle of the Landless, Phaidon
1992
Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age, Aperture
1988
Sahel: The End of the Road, University of California Press
1986
Other Americas, Pantheon
1986
Sahel: Man in Distress, Aperture