Born in Brazil and trained as an economist, Sebastião Salgado (1944-2025) first grew interested in photography during his frequent work trips to Africa for his job at the International Coffee Organization (ICO). Struck by his desire to document these journeys, he left the ICO in the early 1970s to become a professional photographer. Throughout his decades-long career, Salgado turned his camera on diverse subjects across the globe, suffusing each of his photos with a distinctive, empathetic humanist vision. Refugees in Tanzania, victims of the Sahel Famine, and indigenous Amazonian communities are all immortalized in these epic, black-and-white images. Although Salgado started out working for various photo agencies, including Sygma and Magnum, he later pivoted to long-term, self-assigned documentary series. Among these series include Salgado's harrowing images of firefighters battling oil fires during the Gulf War, his powerful depiction of the brutal working conditions in the Serra Pelada gold mine, and his illuminating photographs of the pristine natural world. Salgado’s uncanny ability to capture harsh social, economic, and environmental situations while still maintaining the dignity of his subjects illustrates his unparalleled skill as a documentary photographer.