The World Photography Organization has announced that Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado has been named the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024. Sebastião Salgado, one of the most talented and globally renowned photographers, has achieved international fame thanks to his remarkable black and white compositions, captured over a career spanning more than fifty years.
Ranging from poignant portraits of indigenous communities and industrial workers to investigations of migration and striking panoramas of nature, Salgado's distinctive photographic style has resonated with a global audience. His photographs, often exhibited in leading cultural institutions and featured in major publications around the world, have become emblematic of contemporary photojournalism.
Dozens of Salgado's photographs will be on display as part of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024 exhibition, which returns to Somerset House, London from April 19 to May 6, 2024.
The selection, made by the photographer, highlights the most important themes and milestones of the last five decades of his career. Featuring works from his early projects such as Gold (1986) and Workers (1993), and more recent series such as Genesis (2011) and Amazonia (2019), the exhibition showcases the universal complexity and nuances of life on our planet, revealing its fears and hardships, as well as its extraordinary beauty.
Born in 1944 in Aimorés, Brazil, Sebastião Salgado trained and practiced as an economist before beginning a full-time career in photography in 1973, working at leading photo agencies Sygma, Gamma and Magnum.
His style of photography is deeply rooted in his heritage: his childhood in rural Brazil, surrounded by vast nature and open skies, shaped his approach to light, contrast and proportionality.
The Outstanding Contribution to Photography honors an individual or group of people who have had a significant impact on the photographic medium.
As the 17th recipient, Salgado joins a distinguished list of iconic names including William Eggleston (2013), Mary Ellen Mark, William Klein, Eve Arnold, Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt and most recently Martin Parr, Candida Hofer, Nadav Kander, Gerhard Steidl, Graciela Iturbide and Edward Burtynsky (2022).
More info: www.worldphoto.org.
