[FINISHED] Sebastião Salgado: Declarations

Sebastião Salgado's participation in the En Droits! season is remarkable and shows not only his endorsement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also his support for the Musée de l'Homme, an institution that seeks to understand people in all their complexity. "I'm not an artist. An artist creates an object. In my opinion, it’s not an object that I’m creating. I work with history, so that makes me a storyteller.”

For the Musée de l'Homme, Sebastião Salgado narrates the history of human rights as he has experienced it throughout his 40-year career in some 20 countries. The photographer and the curator took a retrospective look at his work and selected 30 photographs from 20 countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Algeria, Bosnia, Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Mozambique, Philippines, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Tanzania. In so doing, he attests to the importance of ensuring that the rights enshrined in the Declaration are respected on a daily basis in all regions of the world, underscoring its universal significance. These images illustrate, among other things, the right to life, the right to asylum, freedom of thought, conscience and religion as well as the right to work and are in response to the works of the street artists that will be on display in the museum between January and February 2019.

"I don't want people to enjoy the lighting or the range of colours. I want my photos to be informative, to stimulate debate."

He has travelled to more than 100 countries for his photographic projects which, in addition to extensive media coverage, have been featured in books such as Autres Amériques (1986), Sahel, l’homme en détresse (1986), La main de l’homme (1993), Terra (1997), Exodes et Les enfants de l’exode (2000), Africa (2007), Genesis (2013), Koweït, un désert en feu (2016). Travelling exhibitions of these works have been and continue to be showcased around the world.