Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado speaks throughout a information convention on the Nationwide Museum of Anthropology in Mexico Metropolis on February. He died on the age of 81 on Friday. Picture by Isaac Esquivel/EPA-EFE

Could 23 (UPI) — Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, whose black-and-white images documented human struggling and destruction of the Amazon rainforest, died Friday. He was 81.

The Instituto Terra, the environmental restoration nonprofit he based along with his spouse of six many years, Lelia Wanick Salgado, confirmed his demise.

“Sebastiao was rather more than one of many best photographers of our time,” Instituto Terra wrote. “His lens revealed the world and its contradictions; his life, the ability of transformative motion.”

The nonprofit did not say the place he died.

In 2010, Salgado had developed leukemia attributable to issues from malaria contracted in Indonesia, his household mentioned in an announcement.

“I do know I will not dwell for much longer,” Salgado informed the Guardian in an interview final yr. “However I do not wish to dwell for much longer. I’ve lived a lot and seen so many issues.”

Over 5 many years, he went to greater than 130 international locations. Lots of his images are on his Fb website.

He used expressive lighting for the compositions in displaying human struggling.

“Why ought to the poor world be uglier than the wealthy world?” he requested final yr. “The sunshine right here is similar as there. The dignity right here is similar as there.”

His images additionally confirmed the destruction of the planet. In 1986, he captured unlawful gold miners toiling within the anthill-like Serra Pelada mine within the Amazon.

His final e book, Amazonia, in 2021, incorporates greater than 200 images. At present on show in Brussels, there are the Amazon’s lush landscapes, curving rivers and numerous Indigenous peoples. He spotlighted the wealth of the rainforest because it faces an elevated risk of destruction from human actions and the local weather disaster.

“We’re presenting a special Amazonia,” Salgado informed CNN in 2021. “There are not any fires, no destruction — the Amazonia that should keep there without end.

“We can’t construct our future — the way forward for humanity-based solely on expertise,” Salgado continued. “We should have a look at our previous; we should consider something that we did in our historical past. Human beings have an enormous alternative: the prehistory of humanity is in Amazonia now.”

Salgado helped restore the native Atlantic forest on the household farm in Minas Gerais. In 2021, he informed CNN that he and volunteers had planted greater than 3 million timber over 22 years there.

“We will rebuild the planet that we destroyed, and we should,” Salgado mentioned.

He was within the technique of archiving greater than 500,000 images on the market.

“We’ll maintain honoring his legacy, cultivating the land, justice and sweetness he so believed was attainable to revive,” the institute mentioned.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, noticed a minute of silence when he realized of Salgado’s demise throughout an occasion in Brasília. He mentioned Salgao’s work was “a warning for the conscience of all of humanity. Salgado did not solely use his eyes and his digital camera to painting folks: he additionally used the fullness of his soul and coronary heart.”

He was born in rural Minas Gerais, Brazil, and studied economics in Sao Paulo. He moved to Paris in the course of the political repression of Brazil’s 1964-1985 navy dictatorship from 1964-1985.

He took up pictures within the Seventies.

He was named an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1992, and the French Academy of Effective Arts in 2016.