Sebastião Salgado. Amazônia

Sebastião Salgado traveled the Brazilian Amazon for six years and photographed the incomparable beauty of this unique region: the rainforest, the rivers, the mountains, and the people who live there—an irreplaceable treasure of humanity. In his preface, Salgado writes: "For me, this is the very last frontier, a mysterious universe of its own, where the immense power of nature can be felt like no other place on earth. This forest stretches to infinity and is home to one-tenth of all living plant and animal species—the largest natural laboratory in the world." Salgado visited a dozen indigenous peoples living in tiny communities scattered across the world's largest tropical rainforest. He documented the daily lives of the Yanomami, the Asháninka, the Yawanawá, the Suruwahá, the Zo'é, the Kuikuro, the Waurá, the Kamayurá, the Korubo, the Marubo, the Awá, and the Macuxi—their warm family ties, their hunting and fishing, the way they prepare and share meals, their skill in painting faces and bodies, the importance of their shamans, their dances, and rituals. Sebastião Salgado has dedicated this book to the indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon. "I wish with all my heart that 50 years from now this book will not be considered an inventory of a lost world. Amazônia must endure." Instituto Terra, founded in 1998 in Aimorés in the state of Minas Gerais, is the result of Lélia Wanick Salgado and Sebastião Salgado's lifelong struggle for the conservation of nature and biodiversity. By systematically planting new seedlings, the organization has brought about a miraculous reforestation of the once barren valley, furthering the Salgados' goal of curbing the effect of global warming on our planet. Taschen is proud to have achieved the status of a CO2-neutral publisher through our articles on this mission. Also available in a Collector's Edition and four Art Editions, each with a signed silver gelatin print, all with a book stand designed by Renzo Piano.