Meet Sebastião Salgado, 2024's Outstanding Contribution to Photography Recipient

Enter the world of Sebastião Salgado, the Sony World Photography Award's 2024 Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient, in this special artist film.
One of the world's most influential photographers, Salgado was born in 1944 in Aimorés, Brazil. Following his studies, he began his career as an economist before starting to work as a freelance photographer in 1973. Today, Salgado’s photographs are included in the collections of numerous major museums and institutions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, the National Museum of Modern art in Tokyo, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California. In 2019, he was elected Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2022 he received the ICP Lifetime Achievement Infinity Award. With his wife Léila Wanick Salgado, he is the founder of the Instituto Terra, dedicated to the recovery of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. He is based between France and Brazil.
The Sony World Photography Awards’ Outstanding Contribution to Photography title is given to a person or group of people that have made a significant impact on the photographic medium. The recipients have produced powerful imagery that continues to captivate, educate and inspire us as much today as when they were first made. The Award is a celebration of voices behind some of the most groundbreaking photographic work of our time. The recipients have work housed in the world’s finest museums, galleries and institutions and are celebrated and loved for their pioneering imagery.

[@BartSantello]

I lost a job once because as I was driving into work I heard on my local NPR station that it was the last day of a Sabastiao Salgato exhibit. I immediately turned off the highway to witness the exhibit. Never made it to work. No regrets.

[@GolnazJamsheed]

He’s a hero! And his wife alongside him. Very powerful.

[@andreaswenzel5286]

An outstanding personality and an outstanding photographer!

[@johnkelly-pd3vq]

Amazing human being, what a body of work he has produced 🙏📸

[@ritabonito8063]

ADORO!!!!ADORO!!!O TRABALHO DESTE SER ILUMINADO CHAMADO SEBASTIÃO SALGADO!!TODO MEU RESPEITO,TODO MEU CARINHO!TODA MINHA ADMIRAÇÃO POR TODO LEGADO CULTURAL E PELA SENSIBILIDADE ABSOLUTA!!UM OLHAR COMO DESTE SER É INSPIRAÇÃO DIVINA!!!

[@goldfinch2283]

He is a living legend and great inspiration to me, both as a photographer and as a person. ❤

[@marcovfonseca]

I have come to revere the work of Salgado, his eye, his touch and his humanity. In this work I can see clearly the drama, the tragedy, the hope of the human condition. Salgado's work is as staggeringly beautiful as it is challenging and humbling. Thanks ever so much!

[@CanonEurope]

Legend ❤

[@04uknow]

Legend!

[@denisedecarlo9311]

Beautiful art...through the eye of a humanitarian

[@zolie.7191]

The other day I asked a young "photographer" about Salgado - He answered: "I know some of the great photographers of our time, like Peter McKinnon or Tony Northup. But Salgado... Never heard that name.." I was simply speechless..

[@afarside]

Sebastião, seria bem interessante você dar a entrevista na língua nativa, assim como os franceses fizeram, provavelmente eles sabem inglês mas escolheram não utilizar. Vamos valorizar nossa língua? Beijos beijos.

[@ataraxia4526]

I believe he just called me miserable.