Legendary photographer Sebastião Salgado dies at 8123 hours ago Share Save Ian Youngs Culture reporter Emma Lynch Picture editor Share SaveGetty Images Salgado dedicated himself to photographing nature and indigenous life in his later yearsSebastião Salgado, regarded as one of the world's greatest documentary photographers, has died at the age of 81. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva paid tribute, describing Salgado as "one of the best... photographers the world has given us". BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP via Getty Images"Sometimes I ask myself, "Sebastião, was it really you that went to all these places?"' YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images) Salgado and his wife Lelia Wanick Salgado, walk around his exhibition Genesis on display in Rio de Janeiro's Botanic GardenBorn in 1944, Salgado left a career in economics to start as a photographer in 1973. He received the Sony World Photography Awards' Outstanding Contribution to Photography in 2024.