World-famous Brazilian documentary photographer Sebastio Salgado has died at the age of 81, leaving behind a remarkable legacy that spanned over five decades and 130 countries.

Salgado was known for his hauntingly beautiful black-and-white photographs that captured the resilience and suffering of people across the globe, as well as the grandeur and fragility of nature.

Salgado’s lens captured some of the most turbulent and agonizing moments in modern history.

From the 1984 African Sahel famine and the raging oil wells of the Gulf War in 1991 to the atrocities of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, his photography gave international visibility to human and environmental emergencies.

In his homeland of Brazil, Salgado photographed haunting images of gold miners toiling in chaotic pits and the everyday routines of Amazonian tribes. His stunning images acted both as art and as urgent pleas for action.

As reported by the BBC, Salgado’s final major project, Amaznia, was a seven-year photographic journey through the Amazon rainforest.

It documented Indigenous communities and pristine landscapes under threat from deforestation and climate change.

The project culminated in a global exhibition of over 200 images, displayed in cities including London and Manchester.

An outspoken champion of environmental protection, Salgado co-founded Instituto Terra with his wife, Llia Wanick Salgado. They transformed his family’s degraded farmland into a restored rainforest by planting more than three million trees.

Born in 1944, Salgado initially trained in economics. In 1973, he transitioned to photography, later co-founding the agency Amazonas Images with Llia. Among his many honors, he received the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Sony World Photography Awards in 2024.

He was also awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize and served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

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