Award-winning Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado dies at age 81

“Through the lens of his camera, Sebastiao tirelessly fought for a more just, humane, and ecological world,” Salgado’s family said in a statement. “As a photographer who traveled the globe continuously, he contracted a particular form of malaria in 2010 in Indonesia while working on his Genesis project. Fifteen years later, complications from this illness developed into severe leukemia, which ultimately took his life.”

Earlier, Instituto Terra, which was founded by Salgado and his wife, and the French Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was a member, informed his death, but did not provide details on the circumstances or where he died.

“Sebastiao was more than one of the best photographers of our time,” Instituto Terra said in a statement. “His lens revealed the world and its contradictions; his life, (brought) the power of transformative action.”

One of Brazil’s most famous artists, though he always insisted he was a photographer first, Salgado had his life and work portrayed in the documentary film “The Salt of the Earth” (2014), co-directed by Wim Wenders and his son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.

He received a number of awards, and was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States in 1992 and to the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2016.

“I pay tribute to the memory of an exceptional man — remarkable for his moral integrity, his charisma, and his commitment to serving art. He leaves behind a monumental body of work,” composer Petitgirard, secretary of the French Academy of Fine Arts, said in a statement.