Marble
University of Notre Dame
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Serra Pelada, Brazil

Date

1986

Creator

Sebastião Salgado

Location

Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

Trained as an economist, Sebastião Salgado developed an understanding of international affairs that compelled him to relate visual stories of the voiceless and dispossessed. He had documented critical global developments of our time: mass migration, economic exploitation, and environmental degradation. In 1981, a nugget found in an Amazon River tributary started a gold rush. People flocked to the area and began digging in the jungle, quickly deforesting the area which became known as Serra Pelada, or "Bald Mountain." In one year, 80,000 miners extracted two and a half tons of gold from the site. Soon the military government stepped in to extract profits, allowing only official miners who had to sell their finds to the Federal Bank. Salgado captured the experience of thousands who descended into the pit each day. In each sack of rubble they removed was only a few grams of gold. Nevertheless, the slim profit was a great boon for their desperately poor families. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)

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Trained as an economist, Sebastião Salgado developed an understanding of international affairs that compelled him to relate visual stories of the voiceless and dispossessed. He had documented critical global developments of our time: mass migration, economic exploitation, and environmental degradation. In 1981, a nugget found in an Amazon River tributary started a gold rush. People flocked to the area and began digging in the jungle, quickly deforesting the area which became known as Serra Pelada, or "Bald Mountain." In one year, 80,000 miners extracted two and a half tons of gold from the site. Soon the military government stepped in to extract profits, allowing only official miners who had to sell their finds to the Federal Bank. Salgado captured the experience of thousands who descended into the pit each day. In each sack of rubble they removed was only a few grams of gold. Nevertheless, the slim profit was a great boon for their desperately poor families. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
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  • Trained as an economist, Sebastião Salgado developed an understanding of international affairs that compelled him to relate visual stories of the voiceless and dispossessed. He had documented critical global developments of our time: mass migration, economic exploitation, and environmental degradation. In 1981, a nugget found in an Amazon River tributary started a gold rush. People flocked to the area and began digging in the jungle, quickly deforesting the area which became known as Serra Pelada, or "Bald Mountain." In one year, 80,000 miners extracted two and a half tons of gold from the site. Soon the military government stepped in to extract profits, allowing only official miners who had to sell their finds to the Federal Bank. Salgado captured the experience of thousands who descended into the pit each day. In each sack of rubble they removed was only a few grams of gold. Nevertheless, the slim profit was a great boon for their desperately poor families. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
  • Trained as an economist, Sebastião Salgado developed an understanding of international affairs that compelled him to relate visual stories of the voiceless and dispossessed. He had documented critical global developments of our time: mass migration, economic exploitation, and environmental degradation. In 1981, a nugget found in an Amazon River tributary started a gold rush. People flocked to the area and began digging in the jungle, quickly deforesting the area which became known as Serra Pelada, or "Bald Mountain." In one year, 80,000 miners extracted two and a half tons of gold from the site. Soon the military government stepped in to extract profits, allowing only official miners who had to sell their finds to the Federal Bank. Salgado captured the experience of thousands who descended into the pit each day. In each sack of rubble they removed was only a few grams of gold. Nevertheless, the slim profit was a great boon for their desperately poor families. from Touchstones of the Twentieth Century: A History of Photography at the University of Notre Dame (exhibition, 2020-21)
Sebastião Salgado (Brazilian, 1944 - 2025)
1986
Photographs
Gelatin silver print
2009.047.031
Brazilian
gold
gold mines
journalistic photography
labor
ladders
Latin American
miners
mining
© Sebastião Salgado
Not on view, please request access
16 x 19 7/8 in. (40.5 x 50.5 cm)
Gift of Dr. William McGraw, ND ’65

Our collection information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. If you have spotted an error, please contact Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at RMMACollections@nd.edu.