Sebastiao Salgado Quotes
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I don't want anyone to appreciate the light or the palette of tones. I want my pictures to inform, to provoke discussion - and to raise money.
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If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture... “If you take a picture of a human that does not make him noble, there is no reason to take this picture. That is my way of seeing things.
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We are animals, born from the land with the other species. Since we've been living in cities, we've become more and more stupid, not smarter. What made us survive all these hundreds of thousands of years is our spirituality; the link to our land.
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In the end, the only heritage we have is our planet, and I have decided to go to the most pristine places on the planet and photograph them in the most honest way I know, with my point of view, and of course it is in black and white, because it is the only thing I know how to do.
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When I was just starting out, I met Cartier-Bresson. He wasn't young in age but, in his mind, he was the youngest person I'd ever met. He told me it was necessary to trust my instincts, be inside my work, and set aside my ego. In the end, my photography turned out very different to his, but I believe we were coming from the same place.
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There are moments that you suffer a lot, moments you won't photograph. There are some people you like better than others. But you give, you receive, you cherish, you are there. When you are really there, you know when you see the picture later what you are seeing.
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We are one human race, and there must be understanding among all men. For those who look at the problems of today, my big hope is that they understand. That they understand that the population is quite big enough, that they must be informed that they must have economic development, that they must have social development, and must be integrated into all parts of the world.
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The picture is not made by the photographer, the picture is more good or less good in function of the relationship that you have with the people you photograph.
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The language that photography has is a formal language. Any photographer is doing something formal. If it's formal, then it must be an aesthetic way to communicate.
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There comes a moment when it is no longer you who takes the photograph, but receives the way to do it quite naturally and fully.
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For me, art is such a wide concept - anything can be art.
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When you work fast, what you put in your pictures is what your brought with yoiu - your own ideas and concepts. When you spend more time on a project, you learn to understand your subjects. There comes a time when it is not you who is taking the pictures. Something special happens between the photographer and the people he is photographing. He realizes that they are giving the pictures to him.
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I work alone. Humans are incredible, because when you come alone, they will receive you, they accept you, they protect you, they give you all things that you need, and they teach you all things you must know. When you come with two persons or three persons, you have a group in front of them. They don't discuss with the new persons what is important to them.
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I work on stories rather than individual pictures.
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Of course, I won't be abandoning photography, because it is my life.
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You photograph with all your ideology.
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As in any person's life, there have been difficult moments: I have a son with Down's syndrome; through my photography, I have witnessed all manner of human degradation. But there have also been very happy moments.
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My way of photographing is my way of life. I photograph from my experience, my way of seeing things.
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I have two children. I have a Down syndrome child whom I love very much, and my wife that I love.
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It's more important for a photographer to have very good shoes, than to have a very good camera
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I don't believe a person has a style. What people have is a way of photographing what is inside them. What is there comes out.
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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.
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I try with my pictures to raise a question, to provoke a debate, so that we can discuss problems together and come up with solutions.