He’s one of the most important photographers in the world and probably my favourite photographer. Sebastião Salgado, brazilian, living in France, in these days has been in Italy as special gues for the last episode of the tv show “Masters of Photography”. During a break, he has been interviewed and here’s an extract of the interview.

My photographs

“I’m very insecure about my work.I tell myself everyday. In your photos i put your emotions, expectations, experiences, and they all become important and significant for you, so you need someone who tells you which one has something more than another one. If there weren’t my wife Lélia and my assistant, I wouldn’t be able to choose between my photographs”.

Talent

“I don’t know what talent is, but I know that some people are real photographers and others not. You understand when you see a real photographer. There’s a light in them, an interior light. If you look at the greatest photographers, Cartier-Bresson or Klein, you see that everyone has got his light”.

Future of photography 

“People often say Sebastião you’re an artist. No I’m not an artist, I’m a photographer. We photographers exist for a century and a half but maybe in twenty years we won’t exixt anymore, because everything changes. But I consider myself a lucky man because I had the chance to live in the right moment for photography. Traditional documentary photography will disappear. I’m probably one of the lasts”.

Photoreporters

“Photoreporters are still absolutely credible and reliable. There’s always someone who takes advantage of it, but look what photoreportes can do, how they show conflicts in Syria or the sea crossing of migrants. They are the only ones in the middle of violence who still risk their life. You can trust their eyes”.