Franco-British photographer Sebastião Salgado has died
The latest chapter of his research into the crucial issues of life on Earth is in the 54 large- and extra-large-format photographs, almost all previously unpublished, chosen for the exhibition 'Glaciers', at the Mart in Rovereto until 21 September
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Franco-British photographer Sebastião Salgado has died at the age of 81, the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris announced. The news was confirmed by the Instituto Terra, a non-governmental organisation founded by Salgado. "Sebastião was much more than one of the greatest photographers of our time. Together with his life companion, Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, he sowed hope where there was devastation and flourished the idea that environmental restoration is also a profound gesture of love for humanity. Her lens revealed the world and its contradictions; her life, the power of transformative action,' the text reads.
Sebastiao Salgado had been living in Paris for a long time and had stopped photographing people since 1990, concentrating on social commitment, environmental priorities and sustainability. In Brazil he had taken over a farm on which he replanted more than two and a half million trees, recreating a forest with 150 species. Born in 1944 in Minas Gerais, Salgado graduated in economics and began photographing as a professional in 1973. In 1994, he founded the agency 'Amazonas Images' with his wife Lélia, dedicated exclusively to his work. He has travelled to more than a hundred countries for his photographic projects, which have become extraordinarily successful exhibitions in museums and galleries around the world and masterpiece books including Earth (1997), Portraits of Children on the Way (2000), Africa (2007), Genesis (2013), Scent of a Dream (2015), Kuwait. A Desert on Fire (2016), Gold (2019) and Amazônia (2021).
The latest chapter of his research into the crucial issues of life on Earth is in the 54 large- and very large-format photographs, almost all previously unpublished, chosen for the exhibition 'Glaciers', at the Mart in Rovereto until 21 September. Ten more shots hang in the 'great void' of the Science Museum in Trento until 11 January. The project, curated by Lélia Wanick, the artist's wife, was the brainchild of the Trento Film Festival in collaboration with the two museum structures and Contrasto on the occasion of the year for the preservation of glaciers proclaimed in 2025 by the United Nations. The artist, who had had to give up speaking at the opening of the exhibition for health reasons, had postponed his participation until September.
