Sebastião Salgado: Legendary Brazilian photographer dies at 81

He was known for dramatic and unflinching black-and-white images of hardship, conflict and natural beauty.

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The Brazil-born photographer was known for his dramatic and unflinching black-and-white images of hardship, conflict and natural beauty, captured in 130 countries over 55 years.

His hard-hitting photos chronicled major global events such as the Rwanda genocide in 1994, burning oilfields at the end of the Gulf War in 1991, and the famine in the Sahel region of Africa in 1984.

"His lens revealed the world and its contradictions; his life, the power of transformative action," said a statement from Instituto Terra, the environmental organisation he founded with his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado.

Some of his most striking pictures were taken in his home country, including epic photos of thousands of desperate figures working in open-cast gold mines and striking images of the indigenous people of the Amazon.