The legacy of legendary photographer Sebastião Salgado

Sebastião Salgado, who died last week at the age of 81, travelled the globe with his camera and was described by many as the world's best documentary photographer. Sebastião left behind the most extraordinary legacy - stunning black-and-white photographs depicting humanity in all its beauty and ugliness. His images won numerous awards and are instantly recognisable. He witnessed terrible suffering in famines and genocides and paid a heavy price psychologically. But he also found a way to heal himself on a grand and inspiring scale on his huge family farm in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, a place that became environmentally destroyed. Sebastião and his wife Lélia, returned there and planted 2 million trees. It is now a lush landscape full of birds, monkeys and waterfalls. Jo Fidgen spoke to Sebastião in June 2024.

Wendy Baxter began climbing trees as a child and she's never stopped. Wendy has spent much of her working life climbing the emperor of all tree species, the giant sequoias of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the United States. These trees can live thousands of years and grow to a height of more than one hundred meters. Despite her own fear of heights, Wendy climbs them to study the effects of climate change. This interview was first broadcast in June 2017.

Produced and presented by Andrea Kennedy.

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(Photo: Sebastião Salgado Credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images)