Photographer Sebastian Salgado: biography, creativity

Sebastian Salgado discovered the art of photography almost by accident. Once he worked as an economist. And now it is considered one of the most successful and famous photographers on the planet Earth. How did his destiny happen? How did he go about his success? You can read about all this in the article.

Youth

Born Sebastian Salgado on February 8, 1944 in the small town of Aimores, where there were only sixteen thousand inhabitants. In those years, about seventy percent of the area of this region was occupied by a forest, now considered "the lungs of the planet." Then the territory of the Brazilian selva was twice as large, say, in France. Now the area of this forest is only seven percent of the original size. When Sebastian was young, his hometown could offer him only a primary school. Therefore, to study further, he had to leave it and go to Vitoria, the capital of Espirito Santo State. There he graduated from high school in 1962 and entered the university. After receiving a diploma in 1967, he married Lelia Deluis Vanik.

Maturity

Sebastian Salgado soon became the father of two boys - Giuliano and Rodrigo. However, a great test was awaiting him. The younger son had a terrible disease - Down syndrome. The family moved to Sao Paulo, where Sebastian received another master's degree in economics, and his wife completed a music education. She graduated from the conservatory as a pianist.

Then, in 1969, they moved to Europe, namely to Paris. There, Sebastian worked on his doctoral dissertation, and Lelia began to study for an architect. In 1971 the family changed its place of residence again. Sebastian is invited to work as an economist for the International Coffee Organization. He travels a lot, participating in various missions sponsored by the World Bank. He was often in Africa. It was there that he began to make his first photos.

New career

One day, after returning to London from another trip, Sebastian Salgado realized that the pictures he made dragged him more and more. He even decided to abandon the economy for the sake of dedicating his life to photography. Therefore, he and his wife returned to Paris, which was considered the only city suitable for this occupation. At first he worked as a freelancer, but since 1974 Sebastian joins the agency "Sigma". It sent him to Portugal, Angola and Mozambique, where the photographer gradually honed his art.

Then he changed employer. The new agency, Gamma, gave him the opportunity to travel virtually throughout Europe, Africa and Latin America. At this time, his wife completed her education and acquired the profession of an urban planner. In 1977, Sebastian began to work on a huge series of photographs devoted to the life of Indians and peasants in Latin America.

Humanitarian missions

In 1979, the photographer changed jobs again. He was hired by the Magnum corporation, to which he dedicated fifteen years of his life. At that time he not only became famous for his reports from different countries and pictures published in the most prestigious magazines of the world, but he finally completed his epic about the life of ordinary people in the south of the American continent. On its basis in 1984, he published the first book. It was called "Other America" and was released simultaneously in the US, France and Spain.

So Sebastian Salgado, whose photos made him a world celebrity, found his real path in life. He tried to talk about the situation of poor people and helped them, including by collaborating with the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières for two years, recording horrendous hunger scenes in Africa on their behalf . He published two books under the general title "Sahel" - "The Man in Despair" and "The End of the Road", and also organized many photo exhibitions. So he supported the work of "Doctors Without Borders".

"Workers" and "Migrations"

In 1986-1992, Sebastian Salgado visited twenty-three countries to create a series of works on grueling manual labor. They were published in 1993 in the book "Workers". This work sold around the world in a circulation of 100 thousand copies, and the exhibition of photographs was held in more than 60 museums.

As a continuation of the Workers, the master starts the next series of photographs called "Migrations." This project led him to 43 countries. He traveled through all the continents to show the fate of people forced to leave the countryside to move to the cities. For example, he took off nine mega-cities, whose population in recent decades has risen sharply. Very popular were his pictures from the series "Portraits of Children of Migrations". Based on these photographs, posters were made, new books were published, special educational programs were created, and exhibitions were seen by three million people.

But Sebastian Salgado, whose biography became the topic of our little research, would not have coped with all this without the help of his wife. It was she who was the main creative element of the whole popularization of her husband's art. Therefore, in 1994 they decided to create their own business.

Amazonaz Imges

Probably, this agency can be called the smallest in the world. But it was here that Sebastian Salgado and his wife were able to fully develop their activities dedicated to revealing the dark sides of modern society, the horrors of war, the suffering of poor and hungry people, far from the prosperous life of rich countries. Masters can be called the author of social photography. At the center of his art are noble faces, though often distorted by suffering. All his characters have a deep inner world, which only emphasizes the competent composition of the staff and the ability to play with light and shadow. Although some publicists accused him of aestheticizing pain, in fact, Sebastian is simply trying to draw attention to problems that no one wants to see to resolve the issues of that part of humanity that has long been given up.

"Genesis" and other projects

From 2004 to 2011, the photographer worked on a giant series of photographs called Genesis. In the Russian-speaking environment, the project is often referred to as "Genesis." Probably, this is the most grandiose work that Sebastian Salgado did. Animals and people, wildlife and human communities, enmity and harmony, birth and death are all present in this amazing photographic narrative of traditional tribes and cultures that refused to follow the path of modern civilization and technological progress.

And in 2007 the artist created the project "Coffee", where he demonstrated how much a popular drink is created at the plantations of Brazil, India, Guatemala and other countries. Together with his wife, Sebastiano tries to restore the lost Atlantic forest in his homeland. He created a special "Instituto Terra", through which he managed to turn this part of Brazil into a reserve. The photographer received many world-class awards and became a goodwill ambassador to UNICEF. Even in the cinema left a trace of Sebastian Salgado. The film about him "The Salt of the Earth" (2014), which was filmed by Wim Wenders and the son of photographer Julian Salgado, won the Cannes Film Festival Prize.