Sebastião Salgado

Sundaram Tagore presents an exhibition by Sebastião Salgado, one of the most influential photographers working today.

Sebastião Salgado is acclaimed worldwide for his breathtaking landscapes, images of endangered wildlife and documentary projects on indigenous peoples. He lays bare, with intense humanity and sensitivity, inequality and the fragility of the natural world.

This exhibition includes 16 photographs from Genesis (2004–2011), Salgado's epic series that’s been called a love letter to the Earth, as well as an image from Exodus (1993–1999). The analog black-and-white photographs range in size, with small and medium-sized prints alongside large-scale images that measure 68 x 50 inches. Select works are also on view at our Chelsea location.

Over the past decade, the gallery has worked closely with the artist, mounting ten solo exhibitions across the globe, including The World Through His Eyes (2017), Salgado's first major presentation in Thailand. The show, presented at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre in partnership with the Royal Photographic Society of Thailand, broke attendance records.

In recognition of his work, Salgado was recently honored with the prestigious Crystal Award, presented by the World Economic Forum at Davos for his longstanding commitment to addressing inequality and sustainability. The Paris-based artist's latest project, documenting indigenous communities that inhabit the Amazon’s endangered rainforests, will debut later this year in a multi-city tour.

Sebastião Salgado was born in 1944 in Brazil. He lives in Paris. Having studied economics, Salgado began his career as a professional photographer in 1973 in Paris. He worked with various agencies including Magnum Photos until 1994, when he and Lélia Wanick Salgado formed Amazonas Images, created exclusively for his work. Today this structure is their studio.

Salgado’s work has been the subject of numerous books including Other Americas (1986), Sahel: l’homme en détresse (1986), Sahel: el fin del camino (1988), Workers (1993), Terra (1997), Migrations and Portraits (2000), Africa (2007), Genesis (2013), The Scent of a Dream (2015), Kuwait, A Desert on Fire (2016), and Gold, Serra Pelada Gold Mine (2019). Touring exhibitions of this work have been and continue to be presented throughout the world. In 2013, the book De ma terre à la Terre (From my land to the planet), a narrative account of his life and career was published, and in 2014, the documentary film The Salt of the Earth, directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, was released.

Sebastião Salgado has been honored with numerous distinctions and photographic prizes. He is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In April 2016 Salgado was elected member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France, for the seat previously occupied by Lucien Clergue. In July 2016, he was named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, France. Lélia Wanick Salgado and Sebastião Salgado have worked since the 1990s on the restoration of a portion of the Atlantic Forest in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. In 1998 they succeeded in turning this land into a nature reserve and created the Instituto Terra, dedicated to reforestation, conservation and environmental education.