At 73 years old, Sebastião Salgado takes up a position at the prestigious French Academy of Fine Arts in Paris this Tuesday (05). The award-winning photographer is the first Brazilian to receive a position at the institution and will replace Lucien Clergue, a French photographer who passed away in 2014. Created 10 years ago, the photography division of the French Academy of Fine Arts has three other names, in addition to Salgado: Bruno Barbey, from Morocco, and Jean Gaumy and Yann Arthus-Bertrand, from France.

Political, controversial, artistic, committed... There is no shortage of definitions to describe the work of Sebastião Salgado, photographer, former member of the renowned Magnum agency, and owner of an extensive body of work with an ecological focus. An economist by training, he is responsible for major projects that deal with global issues, with more than 10 books, including Genesis, Workers and Exodus, denouncing, with his raw and often cruel images, the high price that human beings pay for the radical economic and social changes that have been promoted.

Based in Paris for almost 50 years, Sebastião Salgado maintains a strong relationship with Brazil. His parents' old farm in Aimorés, Minas Gerais, became the Instituto Terra, founded by him and his wife, where they have replanted more than two million trees.