Sebastião Salgado: world -famous photographer and environmental icon died

Sebastião Salgado: world -famous photographer and environmental icon died

Aimorés, Brasilien - On May 23, 2025, the world -famous photographer Sebastião Salgado died at the age of 81. The sad news was announced by the French Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. In its appreciation, the Salgado Academy described the "great witness of the human constitution and the state of the planet" and recognized its outstanding achievements as a photographer and environmental clock. Salgado had both the Brazilian and French citizenship and was a legendary figure in the world of photojournalism.

born on February 8, 1944 in Aimorés, Brazil, Salgado grew up in the Minas Gerais region. After emigrating to Paris in 1969 due to his commitment to the military dictatorship in Brazil, he started his career as a photographer. He originally studied economics and worked as an economist in development aid projects in Africa in the 1970s. In 1973 he gave up this career to devote himself entirely to photography and quickly became known for his unique black and white pictures. These not only address the fate of refugees, but also topics of nature and climate protection that were particularly important to him.

influential works and projects

Salgado documented the realities of people in crisis areas for decades, including the genocidal events in Rwanda and the famine in the Sahel zone. His tireless efforts to show catastrophic conditions served to sharpen human awareness. His impressive series such as "Workers", which captures manual work worldwide, and "Exodus", which documents the fate of people on the run, were estimated and criticized for both their aesthetics and for the representation of misery.

In addition to his photographic work, Salgado was committed to environmental and nature conservation. Together with his wife, the architect Lélia Wanick Salgado, he founded the Instituto Terra in 1998, which is devoted to the reforestation and restoration of ecosystems. The institute has contributed to greening thousands of hectares of land and serves as a model for sustainable rural development. Salgado often emphasized the need to document the destruction of his homeland in Brazil, which came about through uncontrolled deforestation, to draw attention to the global environmental crisis.

awards and recognition

his impressive career brought Salgado numerous awards. These include the World Press Photo Award in 1985, the Grand Prix National de La Photography in 1994, the Prince-von Asturia Prize 1998 and the Peace Prize of German Book Trade 2019. Salgado was not only valued as a photographer, but also as an ambassador for environmental protection and social justice.

his life's work was recognized in 2014 in the documentary "The Salt of the Earth", which was produced by Wim Wenders and his son Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. The film was nominated for an Oscar and achieved international recognition. In recent years before his death, Salgado increasingly devoted himself to landscape photography and the topics of nature and climate protection, while at the same time celebrating the beauty of nature and the indigenous peoples in his work.

Salgado leaves an impressive legacy that combines the art of photography with a deep commitment to the environment and social justice. His work will remain unforgettable. In his pictures, not only art, but also the voice of those who often remain unheard of.