Sebastiao Salgado: 1944-2025

Legendary Brazilian reportage photographer Sebastiao Salgado passes away aged 81

One of the world’s greatest documentary photographers Sebastiao Salgado has died aged 81 after a long battle wiith leukemia. The Brazilian photographer was known for his hard-hitting mono images of wars as well as the natural world, captured in 130 countries over a 55-year career.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva paid tribute to Selgado, saying he was “one of the best photographers the world has given us.”

A statement from Instituto Terra, the environmental organisation Salgado founded, said: “His lens revealed the world and its contradictions; his life, the power of transformative action.”

Salgado, who received the Sony World Photography Awards’ Outstanding Contribution to Photography in 2024, took many famous images in his home country of local people, many facing extreme hardship.

Photo  Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil, CC BY 3.0 BR via Wikimedia Commons