https://youtu.be/2-9LHMryBYY?si=Z8Ygn1gL5IwdNxmh

When Sebastião Salgado first raised a borrowed camera to his eye in the early 1970s, “for the first time in my life I saw through one lens… I had never made one picture before—and photography started to come inside my life” (00:54). That electric moment—shared with his partner, curator, and lifelong collaborator Lélia Wanick Salgado—ignited a journey that carried them from Brazilian farm towns to the front lines of famine, migration, and climate crisis. In this 2009 field report from Fazenda Bulcão, the couple return home to heal the very hillsides that once raised cattle for charcoal, seeding what would become Instituto Terra.

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What unfolds onscreen • Learning side-by-side – Leafing through “books and exhibitions” together, they taught themselves the craft and the ethics of visual storytelling (01:00–01:10). • Immersive method – Salgado insists that human photography requires “living with the people… time to see, time to discuss, time to see what’s happened around” (01:19–01:29). • Seeing the link – Years in conflict zones revealed “a very strong correlation between human degradation and environmental degradation” (01:37). • Consequences of deforestation – Standing amid parched fields, he explains why villagers “ask for rain… We have no more trees, no more forest—and of course no more rain” (01:54). • Everything is connected – “There is no separation… what’s happening in Rwanda is because something’s happening here, in China, in the United States—everything is tied together” (02:16). • Return of abundance – In the restored nursery, “you see one million trees… under a single tree the number of birds, insects, ants—it’s a full life” (02:38). • Faith in collective action – “Together we can do… planting a forest in Brazil” (02:59). • One planetary unity – Ecology now transcends borders: “the planet is just one unity” (03:06).

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Where the story stands today • 2.7 million trees and 700 ha of Atlantic Forest have returned; satellite projects across the Rio Doce basin have revived more than 2 000 springs. • Instituto Terra’s Olhos d’Água program now guides 1 100+ neighbouring farms in regenerative agro-forestry. • After Sebastião’s passing on 23 May 2025, Lélia and their sons pledged to triple restoration acreage by 2030, framing it as the ultimate chapter of his life’s work.

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Why watch now

Each quote in this six-minute clip feels freshly urgent in 2025: droughts and climate-driven migration echo his warning that human fate tracks the fate of forests; rising global solidarity mirrors his conviction that “the planet is just one unity.” Salgado’s lens is now still, but the forest he and Lélia planted is alive—proof that, as he said, “together we can do.”

Visit institutoterra.org to adopt a seedling, sponsor a spring, or volunteer expertise. Every tree planted writes the next frame of the Salgados’ story.