Sebastião Salgado. A Retrospective

Opening: 25 October 2025, 2 - 7 pm // Galerie Bene Taschen, Cologne

Galerie Bene Taschen is pleased to present a selection of the life’s work of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado (1944–2025) in a retrospective exhibition. Sebastião Salgado is regarded as one of the most important photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries. The exhibition Sebastião Salgado. A Retrospective brings together works from his series Genesis, Workers, Gold, Exodus, and Other Americas. At the same time, the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne will present the solo exhibition AMAZÔNIA – Photographs by Sebastião Salgado.

Together with his wife Lélia Wanick Salgado, Sebastião Salgado was committed to environmental protection. The couple founded the Instituto Terra, an organization dedicated to reforesting a region of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, protecting water sources, supporting scientific research, and promoting environmental education. More than 3 million trees have been planted in this area.

“For me, it is the last frontier, a mysterious universe of its own, where the immense power of nature can be felt like 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.” (Sebastião Salgado, 2021)

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