Thank You, Sebastião
My Sebastião Salgado Book collection, May 2025
Today, the photography world mourns.
Sebastião Salgado has passed away at the age of 81. Many consider him one of the most influential social photographers in the world.
To me, he was much more.
My First Encounter
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
It was the spring of 2015. I found myself in a small, run-down cinema in Sofia, sitting somewhere in the fifth or sixth row on a hard, creaky seat. A friend had invited me to a screening of The Salt of the Earth as part of a documentary film festival. From the first frame to the last second of its 1 hour and 50 minutes, my jaw was on the floor. At the time, I had just told my family, friends, and colleagues that I was resigning from my corporate job, leaving behind stability, benefits, and opportunity, to dive into the unknown. I didn’t have a concrete plan. I only knew I needed a change. I wanted to travel to remote places and document lives lived outside the modern world. Watching Sebastião trek through New Guinea, photographing isolated tribes, felt like a vision of what lay ahead for me. He gave shape to a dream I hadn’t fully formed. After the movie, I didn’t speak for hours. I just thought. That evening, the idea to go to Papua New Guinea was born. And I did go. Because I believed: if Sebastião could do it, why not me?
Becoming My Mentor
“For me, it is the last frontier, a mysterious universe of its own, where the immense power of nature can be felt as nowhere else on earth. Here is a forest stretching to infinity that contains one-tenth of all living plant and animal species, the world’s largest single natural laboratory.”
During the pandemic lockdown in Romania, everything stopped. The government enforced strict measures, and I found myself with more time than I had ever had. Years earlier, a Samsung executive once told me: “If you can’t avoid something, enjoy it.” That stuck with me. So I turned lockdown into a creative retreat. I studied photography every single day. On January 30th, 2021, I made a list of five photographers whose work I wanted to study deeply. Sebastião Salgado was at the top. His Amazonia project became my classroom. I studied his compositions, use of light, and storytelling. I even bought white gloves to handle the books carefully, out of respect for the prints, and for the man behind them.
They were beautiful, focused days.
The Epiphany
In January 2025, I was on a business trip to Barcelona. My calendar was packed with meetings. But on the third day, a partner’s flight got delayed, and suddenly, I had four unexpected hours free. Without thinking twice, I grabbed my camera and headed to the Gothic Quarter for some street photography. Wandering the old streets, I ended up at the Royal Shipyard museum. To my surprise, on the side wing of the museum, there was a special exhibition. It was Amazônia, by Sebastião Salgado. I couldn’t believe it. I spent every single remaining minute there. I've traveled the world to see photography exhibitions. This one was the most powerful I’ve ever experienced. And I don’t say that lightly. I never met Sebastião Salgado in person. But he taught me. He mentored me. He gave me courage when I needed it most. He changed the way I see photography—and the world.
Thank you, Sebastião.
If you’ve never seen Sebastião Salgado’s photography, I hope today you will.
