Sebastião Salgado: Serra Pelada, Beetles + Huxley

Sebastião Salgado’s iconic Serra Pelada series is a striking collection of high contrast black and white photographs that capture the plight of 50,000 miners who scaled the walls of Brazil’s Serra Pelada gold mine daily during the 1980s, moving vast amounts of ore by hand.
Shot just thirty years ago, the images are reminiscent of an ancient, almost biblical scene and some of the most iconic images of modern photography. In Salgado’s own words: “Every hair on my body stood on edge. The Pyramids, the history of mankind unfolded. I had travelled to the dawn of time".
What is Serra Pelada?
Said to be the largest open-air gold mine in the world, Serra Pelada was also the most violent, notorious for its atrocious working conditions as well as murder and prostitution. Salgado’s cinematic photos expose the hellish reality for the miners and tell their story piece by piece.
Sebastião Salgado photography
Salgado’s epic wide shots capture the vast scale and depth of the mine, freezing in time the anthill of workers. You’d be forgiven for thinking that these were images taken of a model. But the close ups – the arresting and immaculately timed portraits of Serra Pelada’s workers – bring the human aspect unflinchingly to life.
What's all the fuss about?
We can’t recommend this exhibition highly enough. Salgado has earned himself the unofficial title of the greatest documentary photographer working today, and these are perhaps his most famous images.
And this exhibition won’t be around for long, so make sure you don’t miss out!