Amazonia: Sebastião Salgado’s odyssey into the rainforest
Master photographer Sebastião Salgado visited the Brazilian Amazon for years, documenting the rainforest and its many indigenous peoples. Compiling his images into his new book "Amazônia," Salgado says he's presenting "the Amazonia that must stay there forever." Scroll through the gallery to learn more.
Torrential rain falls on Serra do Divisor National Park, Acre state, 2016. While he documented rain and storms, Salgado writes in "Amazonia" that the annual dry season in the Amazon has increased by an average of four weeks in the past 40 years.
In the village of Mutum, Rio Gregório Indigenous Territory, Bela Yawanawá poses for Salgado with headdress and painted face. The Yawanawá people underwent a cultural revival in the 1990s that restored the teaching of the traditional language and the tribe's oral history and mythology, writes the photographer.
The Marauiá mountain range in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas state, 2018. The mountains lie in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, an area of over 9.6 million hectares.
In Rio Gregório Indigenous Territory, Acre state, 2016, Miró (Viná) Yawanawá of the Yawanawá people crafts with feathers. Salgado writes that in 1970 there were thought to be only 120 members of the Yawanawá people, but today the population has grown to 1,200.
The Maiá River runs through Pico da Neblina National Park, Amazonas, 2018. Around 1,100 tributaries feed into the Amazon River, writes Salgado, including 17 each over 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) long.
Visitors dance upon arrival to the Piaú community, Yanomami Indigenous Territory, 2019. Dancing in a circle they present themselves to locals, the men enacting an "invasion" by pretending to shoot arrows, before everyone heads outside for conversation, Salgado writes.
Luísa, a member of the Asháninka people, paints her face in a mirror. Photographed in 2016, Kampa do Rio Amônea Indigenous Territory, Acre state. Records of the Asháninka people stretch back to their economic and cultural ties to the Inca Empire in the 15th and 16th century, says Salgado.
Cotingo River Falls in the foreground and Mount Roraima in the background, Raposa-Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory, Roraima state, 2018. The mountain's name is associated with Makunaima, a mythological hero who inspired the classic novel "Macunaíma" by Brazilian author Mario de Andrade, says Salgado.
