averilburystedmunds: The Salgado Duo/ The Salgaduo!

Sebastiao Salgado

Lelia Wanick Salgado

On May 23^rd 2025, Sebastiao Salgado died of leukaemia in Paris aged 81.. He was born in February 1944 in Aimores in Brazil and reading news of his death, I suddenly remembered meeting his name for the first time, plus a few examples of his work, in an exhibition in London, perhaps fifteen or twenty years ago. Then, I had been impressed with his wonderful photographs, but since reading his obituaries, I have become even more impressed with the richness of his creativity, and equally enthralled to learn about his wife, Lelia Wanick Salgado, and the achievements of their frankly astonishing partnership.

On Landscape

Serra Pilada gold mine in Brazil.
1986-1989

Hole cut in ice.
Brave old world.

Waterborne travel for centuries.

A drift of penguins

He trained as an economist with a Master’s in the University of Sao Paolo and a PhD from the University of Paris, eventually beginning his professional life as an economist with the International Coffee Organisation, often travelling to Africa on missions for the World Bank. It was on these trips to Africa that Salgado first started seriously experimenting with photography, becoming increasingly absorbed with its creative possibilities. In 1973 he switched permanently from economics to photography, working initially on news assignments for the photo agency, Sygma, and the Paris-based Gamma, before delving into more documentary-style work in 1979 when he joined the famous international co-operative of photographers, Magnum Photos. He produced much distinctive work for Magnum before leaving in 1994 when he formed his own agency in Paris, together with his wife, Lelia Wanick Salgado, to promote Salgado’s work. Their agency was called Amazonas Images and was notable for its many examples of his fine social documentary photography though he also continued to work on long-term, self-contained photographic projects, many of which were published as books such as The Other Americas; Sahel; Workers; Migrations; and Genesis. The first three in this list are effectively mammoth collections of hundreds of Salgado images from around the world and include perhaps his most famous series of photographs of gold miners in Brazil called Serra Pelada, taken between 1986 and 1989. He has also been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2001.

Wonderful reptilian shot.

Between 2004 and 2011, Salgado worked on Genesis, aiming at the presentation of Nature with unblemished images of man and landscape consisting of a series of photographs of nature including wildlife and human communities still living in accordance with their ancestral traditions and cultures such as the Amazonian rainforest and its people. In September and October 2007 Salgado mounted a large display of his photographs of coffee workers in India, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Brazil at the Brazilian Embassy in London with the aim of raising public awareness of the origins of this ubiquitous drink.

Sebastiao and Lelia have been responsible for
planting over 3 million trees in Brazil

Alongside his many photographic projects Sebastiao also co-operated with Lelia, his wife, on her reforestation and conservation work in Brazil. They began with Salgado’s boyhood terrain, the Bulcao farm, acquired through family, which consisted of the impoverished land he had inherited which they intended to restore but in fact, through working successfully on that, they moved on to found the Instituto Terra in 1998,to provide environmental education, to restore water and to try to plant many trees. Their dream was to return to Nature what decades of environmental degradation had destroyed and to spread awareness of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and its delicate ecosystem that connects all living things within it.

There are SO many Salgado superb
atmospheric photographs of landscape.

Twenty-five years later, that same degraded space has become a paradise, a forest with 50 feet trees and land sufficiently saved and improved that many animals have returned; there are now jaguars, macaque monkeys, 172 documented species of birds. In fact Instituto Terra has won many awards for its huge success in reclaiming land, restoring animal habitats, revitalising degraded streams and rivers. Awards among many, include the prestigious Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity; and endowments from the Zurich Insurance Group and the King Baudouin Foundation of Belgium thus gaining not only essential financial support but also important international visibility. Awards of money to the Salgados have passed for the last several years into a fund within the King Baudouin Foundation to try to guarantee the Instituto Terra continues in perpetuity. It is now under the guidance of their son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.When asked which legacy the Salgados prized the most; artistic or environmental, Lelia replied that with photographs, many people can be reached and educated but, as she says, “The planet needs forests. They are more important.” However, she adds that they receive so many offers of help from people moved by their photographs, such as those in their Amazonia exhibition, who feel compelled to contribute. I happened upon an advertisement by Sotheby's and the Instituto Terra "for an innovative three-week long exhibition of award winning artist Sebastiao Salgado's most celebrated photographs, a Benefit Auction and a show-stopping Gala at Sotheby's New York on Wednesday September 28, 2022."
Penguins in stately procession.

The following facts were added to the above:

Over the last 24 years the Instituto Terra has successfully: 1. 1.Planted nearly 3 million trees native to Brazil's Atlantic Forest 2.Revitalised over two thousand degraded water springs. 3.Produced various educational programmes that train farmers, public officials and children in the conservation and restoration of native ecosystems. 4.Brought back more than 250 animal species to the land, including endangered animals such as the puma."