Sebastiao Salgado died

Died the world -renowned French-Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgadoknown for his extensive oeuvre, in which he depicted wild animals, landscapes and people around the world. He was 81 years old, said the French Academy of Fine Arts, of which Salgado was a member, considered one of the greatest masters of reportage photography.

The Academy has announced that « with deep sadness, she announces that Sebastiao Salgado died today. » He was described in Paris as « a great witness to the human situation and the state of the planet, » reports French news agency AFP.

Salgado has recorded the best for five decades and the worst on planet Earth, from distant natural wonders to horrific human disasters.

The self -taught photographer has traveled around the world all his life, from Rwanda to Guatemala, from Indonesia to Bangladesh, and documented hunger, war, exodus, exploitation and other tragedy of the so -called third world with the empathy of « someone coming from the same part of the world » as he once said. At the same time, in his photographs, he celebrated the immense beauty of the planet and pointed to the fragility of nature due to climate change.

He has received a number of prestigious awards for his work. He was also a protagonist for an Oscar nominated documentary Sol Earth (2014) director Wim Wenders About a photographer’s trips through remote places such as the Arctic Circle and Papua New Guinea.

Salgado was born on 8 February 1944 in the countryside southeast Brazil and grew up with seven sisters on his father’s livestock farm. He received his master’s degree in economics at the University of Sao Paulo and was active in left -wing student movements in the 1960s. In 1969 they were with his wife Lelio Wanick fled to France to avoid the Brazilian military dictatorship. He was also awarded French citizenship in France.

He began his photographic career in 1973 in Paris, where he collaborated with photographic agencies of Sygma, Gamma and Magnum Photos – until 1994, when he and his wife established their own agency Amazonas Images.