The Salt of the Earth

The Salt of the Earth

Wednesday, March 2, 2016 - 6:30pm to 8:30pm
  • Library Hall

Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, a film directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribierto Salgado

A stunning ode to the photographer Sebastião Salgado - Variety

For the last 40 years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been traveling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever-changing humanity. He has witnessed some of the major events of our recent history; international conflicts, starvation and exodus. He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of wild fauna and flora, and of grandiose landscapes as part of a huge photographic project, which is a tribute to the planet's beauty.

Sebastião Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last travels, and by Wim Wenders, himself a photographer.

About Sebastião Salgado
Sebastião Salgado was born on 8 February 1944 in Almorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He lives in Paris, France. Having previously worked as an economist, Salgado began his career as a professional photographer in 1973 in Paris, working with the photo agencies Sygma, Gamma, and Magnum Photographs until 1994, when he and Lélia Wanick Salgado formed Amazonas images, an organization created exclusively for his work.

Salgado has traveled to over 100 countries for his photographic projects. Most of these works, as well as appearing in numerous print publications, have also been presented in books such as Other Americas and Sahel-l'Homme en Détresse (1986), An Uncertain Grace (1990), Workers (1993), Terra (1997), Migrations and Portraits (2000), and Africa (2007). Touring exhibitions of this work have been, and continue to be, presented throughout the world in leading museums and galleries.

In 2004, Salgado began the Genesis project, aimed at presenting the unblemished face of nature and humanity. Genesis consists of a series of landscape and wildlife photographs, as well as photographs of human communities that continue to live in accordance with their ancestral traditions and cultures. This body of work was conceived as a potential path to humanity's rediscovery of itself in nature.

Two books of Genesis, published by TASCHEN, with international distribution in six languages, came out in Spring 2013. At the same time, the Genesis touring exhibition started to be presented.

Since the 1990s, Salgado and Lélia have also worked on the restoration of part of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. They succeeded in turning the area into a nature reserve in 1998 and created the Instituto Terra, an environmental NGO dedicated to a mission of reforestation, conservation, and education.

In 2012, Salgado and Lélia received the Prize e from instituto e, UNESCO Brasil and Rio de Janeiro Municipality, as well as the "Personalidade Ambiental" Prize from the World Wildlife Fund, Brazil. These awards were given in recognition of their work with Instituto Terra.

Salgado has been awarded numerous major photographic prizes in recognition of his accomplishments. He is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States.