Episode • 3/5 of Sebastiao Salgado’s podcast, Eye on the World

The first cliché that comes to mind when we think about it Sebastiao SalgadoIt is often this: summoning thousands of men com. garimpeiros, in a giant muddy hole, climbing stairs that reach the height of buildings. ” These men were there to buy their independence. » Dante’s scene is worthy of building the pyramids, and one of the many shots the photographer immortalized at Serra Pelada, this open-pit gold mine in Brazil’s Pará state. This work was carried out in 1986 and has been incorporated into the work “ Man’s hand », will remain one of his most legendary works. A demonstration of the power of black and white photography.

But Salgado is far from stopping at Serra Pelada. During these years, he undertook encyclopedic work, visiting tea growers in Rwanda, fishermen in Sicily, and boat cutters in Bangladesh. In 1991, he was there in the Kuwaiti desert, among 600 oil wells that caught fire after the Gulf War. An apocalypse scene covered in flames and black smoke, where the photographer works.” Under the rain of oil “He will reach the pinnacle of his art.

qualitative

A series of interviews conducted by Bruno Mayerfeld. Director: Guillaume Balde. Audio recording: Laurent Machetti. Program Director: Daphne Upgraal.

For more

Sebastiao Salgado on Instagram

Report on Sebastiao Salgado in Kuwait published by me The New York Times In 1991

Sebastião Salgado’s View of the Serra Pelada Miners (1986): The Aesthetics of Modern Slavery, marion Gautreau, in CaravelleNo. 111, 2019.

Salt of the eartha documentary film dedicated to the life of Sebastião Salgado, released in 2014, directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.

Selected references

Africa With Mia Couto (Ed. Taschen, 2007, 3rd edition June 2024)

Amazonia (Ed. Taschen, 2021)

Other Americas (Ed Contregor, 1986, 3rd edition 2021)

goldwith Lilia Wanik Salgado, Alan Riding (ed. Taschen, 2019)

Kuwait. Burning desert (Ed Taschen, 2016)

Coffee grounds (Ed. de la Martiniere, 2015)

Man’s hand (Ed de la Martiniere, 2014)

From my floor to my floorwith Isabel Frank (ed. Blun, 2013)

origin (Ed Taschen, 2013)

Displacement (Ed. de la Martiniere, 2002)

Land (Ed. de la Martiniere, 1997)

Serra Pelada (Ed. Actes Sud, Coll. Photo Poche Société n°4, 1999)

Serra Pelada Gold Mine (ed. Debrett Gallery, 1994)

Railway workers (Editor SNCF Central Works Committee, 1989)