Sebastião Salgado was born on February 8, 1944 in Aimorés, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Salgado studied economics in both São Paulo and Paris, and worked from 1968 to 1973 as an economist in both Brazil and England. It was in the early 1970s, while on a tour of Africa as an economist for the International Coffee organization, that Salgado began photographing seriously. He has won more than 50 international awards for his work, including the Eugene Smith Award for Humanitarian Photography (USA, 1982); ICP’s Photojournalist of the Year (USA,1988); the Erna and Victor Hasselblad Award for Life Achievement (Sweden,1989); the Grand Prix National de Ministère de la Culture (France, 1994); the Alfred Eisenstaedt Life Legend Award (USA, 1998); and the Príncipe de Asturias Award for Arts (Spain, 1998). A member of the Gamma agency from 1975 to 1979, and of Magnum photos from 1979 to 1994, Salgado now handles his work exclusively through his own agency, called Amazonas images. Most recently, Salgado has worked on a series called Genesis, his eight-year project in conjunction with the UN, UNESCO, UNEP (United Nations environment project) and the British newspaper, The Guardian, in which he is exploring the world's purest and most protected areas, to remind us of what we still have and what we are in danger of losing. He lives in Paris with his wife and their two sons.
SOURCE An Uncertain Grace by Sebastoão Salgado (Aperture, 1990), Kodak Professional legends online www.kodak.com, and Guardian Unlimited Art Special reports www.guardian.co.uk/arts/salgado/0,15021,1294976,00.html