NewsHail
24 May 2025
Sebastião Salgado, one of the world’s best-known photographers, has died at the age of 81.
He was born in Brazil and took powerful black-and-white photos for over 55 years. He worked in 130 countries and showed the world both its beauty and pain.
Salgado’s photos captured big world events. These included the 1994 Rwanda genocide, burning oilfields from the 1991 Gulf War, and a famine in Africa’s Sahel in 1984.
The group he started, Instituto Terra, said, “His camera showed the world and its truths. His life showed how action can bring change.”
Many of his most moving photos were taken in Brazil. These showed gold miners working in huge pits and the lives of native people in the Amazon.
Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called him “one of the best photographers the world has given us.”
Salgado’s last big project was called Amazônia. It showed the beauty and danger facing the Amazon rainforest. He spent seven years there, taking photos of native tribes. He showed their daily life — from hunting to dancing.
The Amazônia photo show had over 200 pictures. It was shown in London and Manchester in 2021 and 2022.
In an interview last year, Salgado said, “Sometimes I ask myself, ‘Did I really go to all those places?’ Yes, it was me. I went to forests, oil fields, and mines. I may be one of the photographers who made the most pictures in history.”
Born in 1944, Salgado first worked as an economist. But in 1973, he became a photographer. He worked for photo agencies before starting his own, Amazonas Images, in 1994 with his wife, Lélia.
In 2024, he won the Sony World Photography Award for his work. He also got many other awards and was a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
With his wife, he also helped bring back the forest on his father’s land in Brazil. They planted more than three million trees.
Instituto Terra said: “Sebastião was more than a great photographer. With Lélia, he brought new life to places that were ruined. Their work showed that healing the land is also a way to love people.”
