Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado was born on February 8, 1944, on a farm near Aimorés in the Minas Gerais Province of Brazil. In 1964, while working at the Alliance Française, he met the young 17-year-old pianist Lélia Wanick Salgado, who would become his wife, lifelong partner, and collaborator. In 1969, he left Brazil for France, a country that would become the couple's second home and base. In 1971, he discovered Africa, "his other Brazil," in his capacity as an economic advisor and representative of the World Bank. In 1973, at the age of 29, he abandoned his profession as an economic advisor in favor of photography. Between 1977 and 1984, he traveled across Latin America, reaching the most inaccessible villages, and published "Other Americas" in 1985. In 1979, he left the GAMMA agency and later MAGNUM, and in 1994, he founded the agency AMAZONAS IMAGES. Together with his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, they also founded the Instituto Terra, through which they support the reforestation of the Brazilian forest.