Sebastião Salgado interviewed by Leo Johnson at Photo London Talks 2015

on photojournalism

As long as there’s journalism, there will be photojournalism. They’re two halves of a whole. And although they certainly won’t last forever, for the moment I don’t see either one of them coming to an end. Roland Barthes, in his book Camera Lucida, stated that photography, rather than film or television, is the collective memory of the world. As I see it, he’s right about this. Photography immortalize a moment, which then becomes a symbol, a reference. Photography is universal language; it doesn’t need translation. Its collective memory is a mirror in which our society continually observes itself…”

Sebastiao Salgado

Figure Eight, Serra Pelada, Brazil, 1986

“Every hair on my body stood on edge. The Pyramids, the history of mankind unfolded.

I had travelled to the dawn of time.”

Sebastião Salgado

Genesis – a photographic journey across five continents

“Genesis is the search for the origin of the world, the one that has evolved for thousands of years before dealing with the pace of modern life and forget what makes us human. The exhibition presents landscapes, animals and people who were able to escape from this kind of world, paying tribute to distant regions in which, untouched and quiet, nature still reigns in all its majesty…”

Sebastião Salgado

How did you discover photography?

“I discovered photography completely by chance. My wife is an architect; when we were young and living in Paris, she bought a camera to take pictures of buildings. For the first time, I looked through a lens – and photography immediately started to invade my life.”

Sebastião Salgado