Sebastião Salgado | Bassano del Grappa, 24 October 2026 – 4 April 2027

In Bassano del Grappa, more than 160 photographs reveal the beauty and wounds of the world

Some photographers have the power to change the way we see the world. Sebastião Salgado (1944–2025) was one of them. From 24 October 2026 to 4 April 2027, the Museo Civico in Bassano del Grappa will host a major exhibition retracing the Brazilian photographer’s entire body of work for the first time in Italy. One year after his death, more than 160 photographs from the collection of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris tell the story of a fifty-year career shaped by human suffering, social injustice and the wonders of the natural world.

Curated by Pascal Hoël, Head of Collections at the MEP, the exhibition traces Sebastião Salgado’s major photographic series across two main sections. The first explores the photographer’s initial twenty-five years of work, featuring projects such as Other Americas, Sahel, Workers, Kuwait and Exodus. Through these images, Salgado documents communities, the world of work, conflicts and migration. The second section focuses on Genesis, the project he devoted more than seven years to completing. Through this series, the photographer celebrates the beauty of a still-pristine planet, while inviting visitors to reflect on its fragility and the importance of protecting it. The exhibition also explores the bond between Salgado and the MEP, which has supported his work since the 1980s. In 2018, the artist and his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, donated 105 photographs to the Parisian institution. The images on display therefore become much more than a visual record of the world: they invite us to look at it with greater awareness, without turning away from its contradictions.