What Sebastião Salgado Taught Me About Seeing, Caring, and Acting

Yesterday, Sebastião Salgado — one of the most powerful photographic voices of our time — passed away at the age of 81.

His black-and-white images, whether showing gold miners in Brazil, refugees in Sudan, or the untouched cloudscapes of the Amazon, taught the world to slow down and look with empathy.

For me, Salgado was more than an admired artist. He shaped how I think, how I create images, how I understand my role behind the camera — and how I live.

Seeing the Forest and the People

Salgado didn’t treat nature as postcard material. He treated it as presence. In his final work, Amazonia, he portrayed the rainforest and its Indigenous communities not as scenery, but as a living being: ancient, endangered, spiritual. He didn’t dramatize — he dignified. And that made all the difference. More than that, the people of the Amazon were documented as the last guardians of a planet — and a connection with nature — we are losing.

That same spirit is what I now try to carry into my own work with Action for Wildlife, where I document the rescue, care, and rewilding of injured wild animals.

Shifting My Lens

When I first stepped into wildlife photography and videography, I was focused purely on beauty: the wingspan of a bird, the glint in a fox’s eye. Over time — and with Salgado’s quiet voice in my mind — my lens shifted.

I began turning the camera toward more meaningful stories, which led to my involvement with Action for Wildlife. My focus expanded — from the animals themselves to the people behind their recovery: the volunteers, the veterinarians, the biologists — the hands that lift, feed, mend, and release.

Salgado helped me understand:
The story isn’t just in the wildlife. It’s in the people who protect it.

But when we talk about animals in distress and people working hard to save lives, the approach must be subtle. As I always tell those in front of the lens, they should ignore me — pretend I’m not there, like I’m a ghost. My purpose is to create images without disturbing the natural flow of their efforts. I try to document reality as it is — and how it shapes the lives of animals and people. And to do that, I must become invisible.

From Shooting to Acting

What made Salgado even more remarkable was how he went beyond documentation. With his wife Lélia, he founded Instituto Terra, restoring over 3 million trees in Brazil’s devastated Atlantic Forest. He didn’t just tell the story of Earth — he helped heal it.

That taught me that photography can begin with observation — but it shouldn’t end there. It should lead to action.

That’s why my involvement with Action for Wildlife deepened. I was glad to help in more ways than just creating images — from covering summer shifts so other volunteers could rest, to assisting with the management of their website and social media.

His Legacy in Our Hands

Now that he’s gone, I feel a responsibility. Not to imitate his style, but to honor his example. To approach every photograph and video — whether of a bird in recovery or a person offering help — with patience and humility. To see beyond the subject and into the connection. And to act — however I can, whenever I can.

Because that’s what Salgado always offered: not spectacle, but truth. Not distance, but closeness. Not just art — but conscience.

Thank you, Sebastião. For showing us how to see, how to feel, and how to act.
Your vision continues — in forests, in people, in light, and in the quiet work of those who still believe in care.