Salgado 1 kompr
Copyright: Sebastião Salgado
Date
1986
Material
Reprints
Description
"What is about this unspectacular yellow metal that makes people […] risk their lives, their bones and their health for the sake of a dream?"
Sebastião Salgado
The Serra Pelada gold mine in northern Brazil was the largest of its kind with up to 100,000 workers who were lured by the Brazilian gold rush of the 1980s. Sebastião Salgado (*1944) is photographer and environmental activist from Brazil. Following long-standing resistance by the authorities, in 1986 he was able to document the gold diggers who worked in the mine on their own free will. These images were shown around the world at that time.
Today Salgado campaigns against deforestation of the Amazion region. With his wife he founded Instituto Terra, which is committed to reforestation.