Sahel

Brazilian photographer born in Aimarés, in the state of Minas Gerais, in 1944. He graduated in Economics from the Federal University of Espírito Santo, later studying at the University of São Paulo, where he completed his master's degree in Economics in 1968. Between 1969 and 1971 he pursued his doctorate in Paris, having been forced to leave Brazil due to his political convictions. In Paris, he became interested in photography and set up a private laboratory. After completing his doctorate, he traveled to London, where he deepened his studies of photography. He then traveled to Africa, within the framework of the International Coffee Organization, and took his first professional photographs. He worked for several photography agencies such as Gamma, Sigma and Magnum, the latter since 1979.
In 1983 he traveled through Latin America (the amnesty then allowed him to return to Brazil), preparing a series of works that would be included in the book Other Americas. Between 1986 and 1993 he addressed the theme of industrial life and aspects of human activity, producing a series of photographs that gave rise to the exhibition and album Work. This "gigantic archaeology of the industrial age" became one of the artist's most famous works.
Another of his significant works, perhaps the one that reveals the greatest political and emotional commitment, is the book Terra, dedicated to the cause of the "Landless" peasant movement, which includes contributions from José Saramago and Chico Buarque. Also, O Homem em Pânico (1968) and Trabalhadores (1993) were works compiled by the author during his travels.

His work as a photographer takes him all over the world, from tea plantations in Rwanda to oil wells in Afghanistan, always seeking to portray the different manifestations of culture and human life. His favorite subjects are displaced populations, migrations driven by conflict, and refugees. For Sebastião Salgado, each human being, each body, conveys a story that can be told and captured in an image. His background as an economist was no stranger to this understanding of work as activism. He has held numerous exhibitions in various countries around the world and has been distinguished with several awards, among which stand out the Eugene Smith Award for Photo Humanism in 1982, the Kodak Award in 1984, the Oscar Barrock Award in 1985, the King of Spain Award in 1988, the World Press Journalism Award, and the Prince of Asturias Award in 1997.
In 2000 he published the books Exodus and Portraits of Children of the Exodus, and through his website he raises funds that are donated to the Instituto Terra, led by the photographer himself and his wife, which aims at reforestation and education related to environmental issues.