Sebastiao Salgado 1944-2025

Jairo Goldflus, Sebastião Salgado, the greatest of all, 2011

One of the most significant and prolific photographers of the 20th and early 21st centuries, Sebastião Ribeiro Salgado Jr., of Brazil, has died in Paris at the age of 81. His death from leukemia is believed to be a consequence of a strain of malaria he contracted while photographing in Indonesian New Guinea in 2010, which permanently impaired his bone marrow function.

Admired the world over as a documentarian of nature and humanity's relationships with it, and for his ambitious, epic projects which resulted in a series of dazzling books, tributes to Salgado are pouring in from all over the world. There are obituaries at The New York Times, along with a portfolio of work; at Reuters, The Washington Post, the Times of London, Al Jazeera, ArtNews, the L.A. Times, PBS, The Guardian, EuroNews, the Financial Times, Le Monde, CNN, The ICP, Southern Cross, and many others, as well as on Facebook, X, YouTube, and all over social media. There is a short portfolio of his work interspersed with pictures of himself over the years (I had never seen a picture of him as a young man) at The Guardian.

He is survived by his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, with whom he has two children. PetaPixel quotes him from an interview last year: "I know I won’t live much longer. But I don’t want to live much longer. I’ve lived so much and seen so many things."

Mike

Original contents copyright 2025 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

John: "Great photographer and great person."

Jim Metzger: "Why would I cry for the death of someone I never met? Because Salgado laid bare our sense of humanity in each and every photograph. I was lucky enough to see his exhibits at ICP: 'Working' and 'Migrations.' The images in the main gallery for 'Working' left me speechless but it was the 16 or so images in a small side gallery that brought me to tears. When Salgado would arrive in a village, the local children would all come out and engage him with endless questions. He made a deal with them: if they would let him work, he would come and take their portraits. This collection of photos, very young children growing up in the poorest communities around the world, were printed almost life size. There was no affect in their pose; they stood full on to the camera, staring directly into the lens. Salgado immerses you, in a single image, in the lives of these young children with 1,000-year-old souls. I cry now with the memory. He stands in the pantheon of our greatest photographers and humanitarians. Let us dedicate ourselves to carrying on his work."

Thomas Paris: "I saw a couple of exhibitions of his work. The first time, the prints felt overdone to me. And then I saw a series of Pt/Pd prints that were much more—dare I say?—subtle, that I found to be really touching. I'm not sure 'subtle' is the right word because the subject matter, of course, wasn't. But there was a lovely softness to them that was wonderfully balancing the content. I'm sure I'll remember the experience for years to come. And that's how I'll remember him."

Comments

[David B.]

The pictures we see are generally not printed by Salgado, but are images created for Salgado by his printers Dominique Granier and Voja Mitrovic, and maybe others.

The prints we see of Salgado's photos - like many other photographers' - are the combined efforts of the photographer - who chooses what s/he wants to take a picture of - and another artist who develops the film to the best of their ability (choosing the right developing chemical for the type of film and the visual 'performance' that's wanted) and who then prints (and burns and dodges) the negatives to get the best out of them, and to present them how the photographer wants them ..or, in Salgado's case, rephotographs the negatives to produce digital images, and then inkjet-prints the result to give what the photographer wants.

It's a collaboration ..a joint enterprise - like Ansel said, there's the score, and then there's the performance ..and it usually takes two to tango!

[Keith B.]

Salgado was a great documentarian, no doubt. But a number of his photos, particularly those from when he shot film, *look* as if if they have been dodged and burned to the point where they no longer can be reasonably said to be "documents". A matter of style? Maybe. It has been suggested that seeing actual prints is different than seeing them in his books. Maybe.

[Andrew B]

Absolute master. Did anyone get more from TRI-X?
His Serra Pelada series blew so many minds. Timeless photography. RIP

[Patrick Magee]

The first time I saw the work of Sebastiao it stopped me in my tracks. The contrast, detail and subject matter all spoke to me. Ansel became #2 on my list of inspiring photographers after I saw Sebastiao's images.

[Stan B.]

I know Salgado will receive many accolades here, all of them richly deserved. Which is why I don't understand why he chose to accept green washing money from the Vale mining conglomerate (a company responsible for many an environmental and ecological disaster) to exhibit his Genesis project towards the end of his career.

When he finally relented to an 'explanation,' it certainly rose to a level far less than anything his art ever achieved. To me, it sounded like- hey, it is what it is! Was hoping there would be something revelatory that I was not aware of- but I didn't find it. I just don't understand why he didn't just have a smaller show at a lesser venue with less publicity, etc... By then, his name recognition alone would have guaranteed a considerable measure of success for his Genesis project- free of any taint or controversy.

[Bob Johnston]

The man was a legend. I have had the good fortune to see Workers, Migrations and Genesis. The prints in Genesis were breathtaking.

Through his Instituto Terra he and his wife Lelia restored 17000 acres of forest in Brazil. No photographer has ever done more for conservation. He didn't print his own images, very few photographers did. The notable exception was Ansell of course but HCB for example did not.

[Ilkka]

Unbelievable drive in long term documentaries. He was like Gene Smith on steroids. Pittsburgh times 10. Lot of respect.

[David Lee]

I saw “Workers” in the Museum Of Modern Art” in Mexico City. If I remember well, those prints were made by Kodak in Rochester, NY.

[Wolfgang Lonien]

He will be missed...
https://wolfgang.lonien.de/2025/05/rest-in-peace-mr-salgado/