Sebastiao Salgado interview/slideshow

It’s inspiring to read that even with a Down syndrome child, and the time that would consume, Salgado has been so prolific that (Le Monde says) he’s the most “widely viewed exponent of his art” and “has filled more magazine pages and had more exhibitions than anyone else alive today”.

Got to take your hat off to that..

And coffee cups

‘He never intended to cast himself as the social conscience of the West, he says. “I have no claim to be a social photographer. People stuck that label on me, but I do a lot of commercial work like everyone else. I am not a political militant, I’m a photographer and that’s all.’

That seems hard to believe, given that he is the standard bearer for this era’s “concerned photography” (and he moved to Paris as a leftist political refugee in 1969). In his many interviews over time, he is usually drawn into a discussion about the connections among photography, ideology, and art. And however he describes himself, he is certainly a humanist.

He ought to embrace the social photographer label, since corporate flack really doesn’t describe him,