Sebastião Salgado was born in Aimorés, Brazil in 1944 and worked as an economist for the coffee trade in Paris before becoming a photographer in the early 1970’s. Throughout his forty-year career, he has produced major monographs and has been exhibited around the globe countless times. Salgado has won numerous major awards, including a W. Eugene Smith Award for Humanitarian Photography, and has been named photographer of the year twice by the International Center of Photography. He is a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and an honorary member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has photographed for many agencies including the elite photo agency Magnum. In 1994 he and his wife Leila created Amazonas Images in Paris to handle his work exclusively. Since the 1990’s Sebastião and Leila have worked to restore the rainforest surrounding the land where he was raised. In 1998 the pair were successful in establishing Instituto Terra, a nature preserve focused on reforestation and education. Sebastião Salgado continues to photograph today and lives with his wife in Paris, France.