Sebastião Salgado

In documentary and journalistic photographs, depictions of crowds can underscore the gravity of dire circumstances. Workers haul sacks of earth out of the Serra Pelada gold mine in Brazil. Sebastião Salgado’s presentation highlights the appalling conditions and chaotic danger of the operation, which employed more than 100,000 workers at its peak.

Sebastião Salgado turns his camera on a wide range of social issues all around the world, from famine in the Sahel region of Africa to war in Angola to working conditions in South America. Salgado’s best-known project focused on the Serra Pelada gold mine in northern Brazil, near the mouth of the Amazon River. At its peak, Serra Pelada employed at least 100,000 workers, making it one of the largest mines in the world. Salgado’s images show the backbreaking and hazardous conditions the miners endure, heightening international awareness of their suffering.