Sebastiao Salgado in his own words: "My photography is my life; it’s my way of life. If people, after I disappear, use my photography as a reference of the moment that I lived, OK, that can become a legacy, but now I cannot speak about legacy"

Sebastiao Salgado poses for a portrait for AFP at Somerset House in London on April 18, 2024.

The death of celebrated photographer Sebastiao Salgado was announced on Friday, following a long struggle with leukemia.

Sebastiao Salgado: 1943-2025

Salgado was born in Brazil in 1943, and lived in Paris since moving there with his wife Lélia in the 1960s, to study economics. His first books, Sahel: The End of the Road and Other Americas, were both published in France in 1986. Salgado’s many awards include the Oskar Barnack Award, the World Press Photo of the Year and the Dr Erich Salomon Award. Salgado’s life and work was famously documented in The Salt of the Earth, a 2014 film directed by Wim Wenders and Salgado’s son Juliano, which brought to the forefront the role Lélia played in her husband’s success.

He died in Paris on May 24 2025 from leukemia which he contracted from complications with malaria he caught in Indonesia while taking photos for his Genesis project in 2010.