Other Americas, originally published in France in 1986 and designed by Lélia Wanick Salgado, is Sebastião Salgado’s first book. Upon publication it became an award winning photobook classic, establishing Salgado’s reputation as the visionary reportage photographer of his generation. With forty-nine black-and-white photographs taken between 1977 and 1984, Salgado’s distilled survey of a continent includes images from Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, and Mexico. The images range in subject, capturing spiritual and religious practices, changing rural landscapes, and intimate domestic life. Each photograph shares a sense of sincere connection-connection between the subject and the photographer, between a population and their homeland, and between Salgado and the audience he seeks to engage. In his text, Alan Riding writes, “Salgado has sought out a lost corner of the Americas and he has made it a prism through which the entire continent can be viewed. A philosophy of life is caught in a look; an entire way of life is frozen in a moment . . .”
Sebastião Salgado (born in Aimorés, Brazil, 1944) began working as a professional photogra- pher in 1973. Since then, he has published numerous books, held solo shows, received inter- national awards, and along with his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, founded Amazonas images, an agency created for his work.
Claude Nori (born in Toulouse, France, 1949) is a photographer, editor, author, and the pub- lisher of Contrejour, which he founded in 1975.
Gonzalo Torrente Ballester (born in Serantes, Spain, 1910; Died in Salamanca, Spain, 1999) was an award-winning Spanish writer, professor, and literary critic.
Alan Riding (born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1943) is a journalist and writer who worked for The Financial Times, The Economist and joined the New York Times in 1977.