One of the last great photographers, Sebastião Salgado, passed away on May 25, 2025, leaving behind his thought-provoking legacy that continues to inspire us. With his work spanning five decades, Salgado, through his powerful and poetic images, shaped our understanding of the world, the struggle between nature and humans, while reminding us of our place in the grand scheme of things. Just like his photographs, his words and advice, too, continue to make ripples of change. Today, we share a few words from the photographer and how it can be incorporated into your practice to achieve better results.
Live in the Moment
Sebastião Salgado was 81 years old, and considering the time he has spent making these larger-than-life projects, he also learned a few things about being in the moment. In his interview with TED Blog, Salgado said, “In my moment, I live my moment. I’m older now, but young photographers must live their moment — this moment here — and stand in this society and look deeply at the striking points of this society.” The photograph said that the reason the images became important was not because they were photographs, but that they depicted moments of our society. This is how we are so easily able to connect with his work, despite many of us not knowing the entire story. The moments speak for themselves.
Identify What You Want to Photograph
Salgado has always been an activist. The photographer was 29 when he discovered the medium, and since then, he has used his lens to document our planet in its varied shapes and colors. However, Salgado’s series, Genesis, Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age, and Migrations, are projects that he spent years capturing. Speaking about this with TED Blog, the photographer said, “Before you do this kind of project, you must have a huge identification with the subject, because the project is going to be a very big part of your life. If you don’t have this identification, you won’t stay with it.” As he further states, “love” is what helped him to keep going. So, if you feel the fire fizzle out in the first few months of your series, this is a good sign that you need to look at other subjects that speak to you.
Be Part of The Community
Parachute photojournalism is one of the many problems of our time. While many photographers wish to document the untouched parts of the world, they forget that their images will always be lacking if they do not become a part of the community or indigenous people they are photographing. As Salgado explains it in one of his interviews, “Only by tendering yourself as defenceless as the people you photograph, entering their world as a vulnerable stranger, will they not only tolerate but welcome your presence. There’s no sense in which I am an anonymous voyeur: I live within the phenomenon I document.” For you to be able to make a series that stands out, you must get in the shoes of the people whose challenges you wish to showcase to the world. With time, dignity, and respect, you may get a series that is truly your own.
Film vs Digital
The beauty of Sebastião Salgado’s images not only lies in the moment itself, but also in how he captured it. The photographer always show on film, using his Leicas and pairing with 28mm, a 35mm, and a 50mm lens. While he switched to digital, he was still interested in producing his prints like he did with film. For this, he would make negatives from digital images, and then introduce “grain from the Tri-X film,” and the work is printed again. Giving his reasoning, the Erna and Victor Hasselblad Award winner said, “Digital is flat, and when I put the Tri-X grain in, I have my life there, the texture that I have always worked with.” Those shooting digitally can also give this a try for specific projects as well.
The Art of Giving Back
What makes Sebastião Salgado different from the rest is his ability to give back to the people and Earth he photographed all these years ago. As photographers, we are always taught to capture or document stories, but in doing so, we forget we have a chance to make a difference. No matter how small the contribution, giving back is the only way for the cycle of life to be complete. Salgado was known to sow the seeds of 300 different species of saplings, which helped to revive the places that were devastated due to human greed. It was his ability to pursue a cause until the very end that has proved that he is a photographer who genuinely cares for the cause he documented all his life.