Lélia Wanick Salgado studied architecture and urban planning in Paris. Her interest in photography started in 1970. In the 1980s, she began to conceive and design the majority of Sebastião Salgado’s photography books and all of the exhibitions of his work. Sebastião Salgado began his career as a professional photographer in Paris in 1973 and subsequently worked with the photo agencies Sygma, Gamma, and Magnum Photos. In 1994, he and his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado created Amazonas Images, which is today their studio, and exclusively handles his work. Salgado’s photographic projects have been featured in many exhibitions as well as books, including Sahel. L’Homme en détresse (1986), Other Americas (1986), Terra (1997), Migrations (2000), The Children (2000), Africa (2007), Genesis (2013), The Scent of a Dream (2015), Kuwait. A Desert on Fire (2016), Gold (2019) and Amazônia (2021).
Amazonia, a stunning succession of black and white panoramas. Looking through his images, I feel the same awe I would feel in front of sublime paintings: serpentine rivers flow through seemingly limitless forests, sheer-sided rock escarpments vanish into skies, and apocalyptic clouds loom over wispy treetops. -- The Guardian [Sebastiao Salgado] spent six years capturing the Amazon rainforest and its Indigenous inhabitants, making a case for their ecological and cultural importance. -- The New York Times This book is a powerfully persuasive voice in an increasingly urgent campaign. -- The Times An exceptional book on the beauty of this almost lost paradise, threatened by a galloping deforestation. -- Le Soir This book is dedicated to the indigenous peoples of Brazil's Amazon region. It is a celebration of the survival of their cultures, customs, and languages. It is also a tribute to their role as the guardians of the beauty, natural resources, and biodiversity of the planet's largest rainforest in the face of unrelenting assault by the outside world. We are eternally grateful to them for allowing us to share their lives. -- Sebastiao Salgado and Lelia Wanick Salgado