Committed photojournalist, Salgado is one of the most outstanding and versatile of contemporary photographers. A humanist who conveys his feelings with powerful, beautiful photographs, he has revealed a world of human despair from the miserable conditions endured by Brazilian coal miners to African famine victims to oil well firefighters in Kuwaiti oil fields.
A trained economist with advanced degrees in the field, he first became interested in photography while touring Africa as an economic advisor in 1970. In 1973 he quit his job to travel to Africa with his wife to document famine there. In 1974 he joined the Sygma agency, and then the Gamma agency (1975 1979). In 1979 he was invited to join Magnum. Two years later he was in the doorway of the Washington Hilton taking pictures when President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley.
His images of Latin American peasants from six different countries were compiled in the 1984 book Other Americas. His 1993 book Workers: An Archeology of the Industrial Age is an homage to manual labor. In 1997 he published Terra: Struggle of the Landless, about the hard life of Brazilian peasants.
Salgado, who lives in Paris, has won various awards, including the W. Eugene Smith Award in 1982 for his essay and series Ethiopian Famine. In 1985 he won the Oskar Barnack Award. He was named Photographic journalist of the Year by the International Center of Photography in 1986 and received the Hasselblad Award in 1989.
His work has been exhibited internationally at such venues as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery. In 1993 he received the ultimate American cultural accolade, a feature in People magazine. His work has been published in magazines and newspapers worldwide.
Sebastiao Salgado
Committed photojournalist, Salgado is one of the most outstanding and versatile of contemporary photographers. A humanist who conveys his feelings with powerful, beautiful photographs, he has revealed a world of human despair from the miserable conditions endured by Brazilian coal miners to African famine victims to oil well firefighters in Kuwaiti oil fields.
A trained economist with advanced degrees in the field, he first became interested in photography while touring Africa as an economic advisor in 1970. In 1973 he quit his job to travel to Africa with his wife to document famine there. In 1974 he joined the Sygma agency, and then the Gamma agency (1975 1979). In 1979 he was invited to join Magnum. Two years later he was in the doorway of the Washington Hilton taking pictures when President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley.
His images of Latin American peasants from six different countries were compiled in the 1984 book Other Americas. His 1993 book Workers: An Archeology of the Industrial Age is an homage to manual labor. In 1997 he published Terra: Struggle of the Landless, about the hard life of Brazilian peasants.
Salgado, who lives in Paris, has won various awards, including the W. Eugene Smith Award in 1982 for his essay and series Ethiopian Famine. In 1985 he won the Oskar Barnack Award. He was named Photographic journalist of the Year by the International Center of Photography in 1986 and received the Hasselblad Award in 1989.
His work has been exhibited internationally at such venues as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery. In 1993 he received the ultimate American cultural accolade, a feature in People magazine. His work has been published in magazines and newspapers worldwide.
Sebastiao Salgado
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Fritz ScholderApr 25 – Oct 25, 2026In a softly shimmering blue, then brown, then green, then gray, then pink, then green, then violet, then blue again, the colors of present day New Mexico landscapes are layered horizontally.
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Afterlife Film ProgramSep 5 – Dec 18, 2026Death is one of the few universal experiences of the human condition and, at the same time, one of the most mysterious. Throughout history, religions, spiritual traditions, philosophical schools of thought, and even science have sought to answer the same question...
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Housekeeping in a Dangerous TimeApr 24 – Dec 31, 2026Housekeeping in a Dangerous Time looks into artistic practices that engage with the contemporary forces shaping intergenerational ties and the distinctions between life stages.
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Venice Biennale 202661st International Art ExhibitionThe 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025) – will run from Saturday 9 May to Sunday 22 November 2026 (preview 6, 7, 8 May) at the Giardini and the Arsenale venues, and in various locations around Venice.
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Art Week Tokyo 2026November 4–8, 2026
Art Week Tokyo 2026 expands its activation of the city’s diverse array of museums and art spaces. New institutional highlights include Nam June Paik: The 20th Anniversary of His Passing at Watari-um…
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Marc Chagall: The CircusNov 21, 2026 – Apr 25, 2027
Throughout his prolific career, Marc Chagall (1887–1985) returned time and again to the vivid imagery of acrobats, clowns and fantastical performers. Marc Chagall: The Circus will present Chagall’s celebrated lithographs on this subject…
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CameraItalian Center for PhotographyA project of international scope, undertaken in the autumn of 2015 with a range of private partnerships, CAMERA aims to reinforce its connection with the territorial system ever more: a unique hub dedicated to photography...
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Oulu2026: PlayJan 14 – Dec 31, 2026Fotografiska Tallinn brings a photo exhibition to Finland for the first time. Entitled PLAY, the group exhibition is part of the European Capital of Culture programme...
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Brassaï – The Secret Signs of ParisMar 28 – Oct 4, 2026Brassaï is one of the most famous photographers in the history of photography. In the early 1930s, he set out with his camera on long nocturnal walks through Paris. Revolving around this treasure of images, the exhibition “Brassaï – The Secret Signs of Paris” includes over 160 black-and-white photographs.
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It’s a Pink Area: Marc Kokopeli and Sydney SchraderApr 11 – Oct 4, 2026Everything has edges. Has contours. An object or an image always begins somewhere and ends somewhere else, rubbing into whatever is nearby on either side. These edges indicate the area where something meets its own exterior...
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Arnold J. Kemp: Not One ThingJul 28 – Dec 6, 2026
Arnold J. Kemp: Not One Thing is the first institutional survey of work by the Chicago-based artist Arnold J. Kemp (b. 1968, Boston). The exhibition focuses on Kemp’s performative and material tendencies of masking, traced through various media.
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OFFSCREEN: 5th editionOctober 20–25, 2026OFFSCREEN Paris is a nomadic event that values contemporary, historic and avant-garde artists with image-based practices. With its distinct voice, it is a must-see highlight of Paris Art Week each October...
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If We Could Inhabit the Skina Dramaturgy for Living the BoundaryThe relational system of the human being is never a simple matter because it is always present, active, and mutable. The way in which this is made explicit is never predictable because it is conditioned by the external response
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Kishio SugaLong-term viewKishio Suga brings together a representative group of the artist’s sculptures, dating from the 1960s to the ’90s, that probe the slippages between seeing and knowing. Works culled from Dia’s holdings are complemented by key loans...
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Fondation BeyelerMuseum / Riehen, SwitzerlandThe Fondation Beyeler is a museum of modern and contemporary art open 365 days a year. Its exhibitions of renowned artists of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries have brought the museum international recognition and established it as Switzerland’s most popular art museum.
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The Other Side of the MountainOct 14, 2026 – Mar 21, 2027
The Other side of the Mountain brings together contemporary artists working across the African continent and within the Afro-Nordic diaspora. They explore how cities and modern landscapes shape our connections to one another…
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George Watson: The ChoiceJul 4 – Oct 11, 2026In this installation artist George Watson brings together a series of seemingly divergent references – to the farm, the villa, and 19th-century English literature. Recurring elements across the artist’s practice, here they are positioned within a larger narrative...
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