PRESS RELEASE | 14 NOVEMBER 2023

SEBASTIÃO SALGADOOUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD 2024
EXHIBITION: 19 APRIL – 6 MAY 2024 | SOMERSET HOUSE, LONDON

Portrait of Sebastião Salgado, 2019. © Renato Amoroso; Kuwait, 1991. © Sebastião Salgado

The World Photography Organisation is delighted to announce the acclaimed Brazilian photographer
Sebastião Salgado as the Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient of the Sony World
Photography Awards 2024. One of the most accomplished and globally celebrated photographers
working today, Sebastião Salgado has achieved international renown for his remarkable black-andwhite compositions captured over a career spanning more than 50 years.
Ranging from poignant portraits of indigenous communities and industrial workers, to surveys ofmigration and striking panoramas of the natural world, Salgado’s distinctive photographic style has
resonated with global audiences. His images, exhibited across leading cultural institutions and featured
in major publications around the world, have become emblematic of contemporary photographic
journalism.
Dozens of photographs by Salgado will be on view as part of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024
exhibition, which returns to Somerset House, London from 19 April - 6 May 2024. The selection, made by
the photographer, highlights the key themes and milestones over the last five decades of his career.
Featuring works from his early projects such as Gold (1986) and Workers (1993), and more recent series

like Genesis (2011) and Amazônia (2019), the exhibition explores the universal complexities and nuancesof life on our planet, revealing its anguishes and hardships, as well as its extraordinary beauty.
Born in 1944 in Aimorés, Brazil, Sebastião Salgado trained and practised as an economist before
embarking on a full-time career in photography in 1973, going on to work with leading photographic
agencies Sygma, Gamma and Magnum. His indelible photographic style is deeply rooted in his
heritage: his childhood in rural Brazil, surrounded by the great expanse of nature and the open skies,
was an important aesthetic touchpoint, guiding his lens and informing his approach to light, contrast
and proportionality.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Sebastião Salgado travelled around the world to pursue his projects, producinga number of acclaimed series, which continue to influence visual culture today. Works from several ofthese projects will be on view at Somerset House as part of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024
exhibition, including Gold (1986), which documents the harsh conditions on the steep cliffs of the Serra
Pelada gold mine in northern Brazil, and Workers (1993) which examines the challenges and demandsof heavy manual labour in the oil, construction, agricultural and mining industries. Also featured in theexhibition are photographs from the series Exodus (2000), a long-term project tracing the globalmovement of people, in contexts of economic migration and forced displacement.
After bearing witness to the atrocities of conflict in the Congo and Rwanda in the mid-1990s, Salgado
turned away from photography for a time, to focus on ecological work. With his wife Lélia, he establishedthe Instituto Terra, an initiative to reforest and rebuild biodiversity in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Seeing
nature’s prodigious capacity for renewal, Salgado was inspired to return to photography, creating two
major bodies of work, Genesis (2011) and Amazônia (2019), which will be represented in the exhibition.
Genesis explores remote and remarkable corners of the planet where wildlife and humans coexist
harmoniously, while Amazônia depicts Brazil’s Amazonian Forest and the indigenous communities
inhabiting it, highlighting its beauty whilst shedding light on the threats it faces.
Commenting on his acceptance of the award, Sebastião Salgado says: "I am honoured to receive thisaward, and to know that my work is reaching audiences. Photography is my way of life, it is mylanguage, and throughout my career I have always been interested in capturing the historical momentin which we are living, and telling the stories of our species and our planet. A photographer
photographs with his heritage, and in my work I seek to explore our shared human experience.”
The Outstanding Contribution to Photography honours a person or group of people that have made asignificant impact on the photographic medium. As its 17th recipient, Sebastião Salgado joins a
distinguished list of iconic names including William Klein (2012), William Eggleston (2013), Elliott Erwitt(2015), Martin Parr (2017), Candida Höfer (2018), Graciela Iturbide (2021), Edward Burtynsky (2022) andRinko Kawauchi (2023) to name a few.
The overall winners in the Student, Youth, Open and Professional competitions of the Sony World
Photography Awards 2024 will be announced on 18 April 2024. For more information about upcoming
announcements and winners please visit www.worldphoto.org.

PRESS CONTACTSFOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:PollyBrock/
Vanda

Ivančićonmedia@creoarts.com

NOTES TO EDITORSSEBASTIÃO SALGADO
Sebastião Salgado was born in 1944 in Aimorés, Brazil. Following his studies, he began his career as an economist
before starting to work as a freelance photographer in 1973. Today, Salgado’s photographs are included in thecollections of numerous major museums and institutions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art
in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, the National
Museum of Modern art in Tokyo, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art inCalifornia. Salgado’s distinctions include the Eugene Smith Award for Humanitarian Photography, the World Press
Photo Award, the Photojournalist of the Year Award, and the Erich Salomon Prize. In 2015, Salgado was named thePhoto London Master of Photography, in 2016 he was named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in France andbecame a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France. In 2019, he was elected Foreign
Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2022 he received the ICP LifetimeAchievement Infinity Award. Salgado holds four honorary doctorates, including at Harvard University and at theNew School. With his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado, he is the founder of the Instituto Terra, dedicated to the recoveryof the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. He is based between France and Brazil.
ABOUT SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS
Produced by the World Photography Organisation, the internationally acclaimed Sony World Photography Awards
is one of the most important fixtures in the global photographic calendar. Now in its 17th year, the free-to-enter
Awards are a global voice for photography and provide a vital insight into contemporary photography today. For
both established and emerging artists, the Awards offer world-class opportunities for exposure of their work. TheAwards additionally recognise the world’s most influential artists working in the medium through the Outstanding
Contribution to Photography award; previous recipients include William Eggleston (2013), Mary Ellen Mark (2014),Martin Parr (2017), Candida Höfer (2018), Nadav Kander (2019), Gerhard Steidl (2020), Graciela Iturbide (2021),
Edward Burtynsky (2022) and Rinko Kawauchi (2023). The Awards showcase the works of winning and shortlisted
photographers at a prestigious annual exhibition at Somerset House, London. Our hashtags to follow are#SonyWorldPhotographyAwards and #SWPA2024. worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards-exhibition
ABOUT WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY ORGANISATIONWorld Photography Organisation is a leading global platform dedicated to the development and advancementof photographic culture. Its programming and competition initiatives provide valuable opportunities for artists
working in photography and help broaden the conversation around their work. The Sony World PhotographyAwards is World Photography Organisation’s principal programme. Established in 2007, it is one of the world’s
biggest and most prestigious photography competitions; celebrating the work of leading and emerging
practitioners and attracting tens of thousands of visitors annually to its exhibitions worldwide. World Photography
Organisation is the photography strand of Creo, responsible for delivering initiatives and programming acrossthree sectors: photography, film and contemporary art. Follow the World Photography Organisation on Instagram(@worldphotoorg), X (@WorldPhotoOrg) and LinkedIn/Facebook (World Photography Organisation).
CREO
Creo initiates and organises events and programming across three key strands: photography, film andcontemporary art. Established in 2007 as World Photography Organisation, Creo has since grown in scope,furthering its mission of developing meaningful opportunities for creatives and expanding the reach of its culturalactivities. Today, its flagship projects include the Sony World Photography Awards, Sony Future Filmmaker Awards,PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, Photo London and PHOTOFAIRS New York. Working in partnership with Angus MontgomeryArts, Creo helps deliver the group’s ventures, comprising some of the world’s leading art fairs. Taking its name fromthe Latin for ‘I create’, it is in this spirit that Creo sets out to empower and give agency to creative voices.
www.creoarts.com
SONY GROUP CORPORATION
Sony Group Corporation is a creative entertainment company with a solid foundation of technology. From Game& Network Services to Music, Pictures, Electronics Products & Solutions, Imaging & Sensing Solutions and Financial

Services - Sony's purpose is to fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology. For more
information, visit: sony.com/en
SONY CORPORATION
Sony Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation and is responsible for the Entertainment,
Technology & Services (ET&S) business in the Sony Group. With the vision to "continue to deliver Kando and Anshin*to people and society across the world through the pursuit of technology and new challenges," Sony Corporation
supports the Sony Group with technology to create the entertainment of the future together with creators. For more
information, visit: www.sony.net*Both Japanese words, Kando means emotion and Anshin has various meanings such as peace of mind,
reassurance, reliability and trust.