It's not the photographer who makes the picture, but the person being photographed.
Sebastiao SalgadoI discovered that close to half the planet is 'pristine.' We live in towns such as London, Paris or Sao Paulo and have the impression that all the pristine areas are gone, but they are not.
Sebastiao SalgadoI have a way to photograph. You work with space, you have a camera, you have a frame, and then a fraction of a second. It's very instinctive. What you do is a fraction of a second, it's there and it's not there. But in this fraction of a second comes your past, comes your future, comes your relation with people, comes your ideology, comes your hate, comes your love - all together in this fraction of a second, it materializes there.
Sebastiao SalgadoI have been photographing the portrait of an end of an era, as machines and computers replace human workers. What we have in these pictures is an archeology.
Sebastiao SalgadoI don't believe a person has a style. What people have is a way of photographing what is inside them. What is there comes out.
Sebastiao SalgadoWe are one human race, and there must be understanding among all men. For those who look at the problems of today, my big hope is that they understand. That they understand that the population is quite big enough, that they must be informed that they must have economic development, that they must have social development, and must be integrated into all parts of the world.
Sebastiao Salgado