MUNICH.- His photographs are deeply touching as they show the essence of sorrow and beauty at the same time. As a plea for social justice, nature protection and peace they appeal to all of us. Now two of Sebastião Salgado’s great black-and-white documents will be offered in the 500th Anniversary Auction at Ketterer Kunst in Munich on July 17/18. Proceeds will go to the Wim Wenders Foundation.




When Wim Wenders came across one of Sebastião Salgado‘s photos for the first time he was immediately smitten with their intensity. He bought the picture of a Tuareg woman who had lost her eyesight and put it up in his study. Years later he met the artist personally and they became close friends. The German director and the Brazilian photographer realized several projects together, the most notable one is the documentary film “The Salt of the Earth“. What both artists share is an unbiased eye for human nature, a deeply humanist commitment and a love for the Earth. In the end it was a logic consequence that Wim Wenders delivered the honorific speech when Sebastião Salgado was awarded the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade) in 2019. In a stirring speech he honored the activist‘s work and motivation for its authenticity and true nature.

Wim Wenders, whose nonprofit foundation aims at making the cultural treasure film more accessible especially to a younger audience by putting increased focus on film education, explains why shooting photos can be an act of peace: Salgado uses his camera to visualize the loss of what is eventually peacemaking. That is the right to a home, an intact nature, the right to work and to a livelihood, and, first and foremost, the right to dignity. The photographer delivers accounts of both human suffering and Earth‘s paradisiacal beauty. His monumental, almost biblical shots are sublime contemporary documents of the state of planet and mankind, at the same time they are imploring appeals for more respect and a more responsible treatment of the blue planet and all the people inhabiting it.

Other fascinating works in the 500th Anniversary Auction come from acclaimed artists like Josef Albers, Max Beckmann, Willi Baumeister, Lovis Corinth, Tony Cragg, Otto Dix, Isa Genzken, Keith Haring, Erich Heckel, Yves Klein, Max Liebermann, August Macke, Paula Modersohn- Becker, Gabriele Münter, Emil Nolde, Albert Oehlen, Anita Rée, Daniel Richter, Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, Josef Scharl, Rudolf Schlichter, Franz von Stuck, Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann