Following the retrospective on the works of Ruth Orkin, Dorothea Lange and Brassaï, great photography is returning once again to Bassano del Grappa. From 24 October 2026 to 4 April 2027, the Museo Civico of Bassano del Grappa, is paying tribute to another artist whose ‘eye’ made history in this art form, effectively changing the way we see the world: Sebastião Salgado (1944-2025).

The exhibition Sebastião Salgado. Photographs from the Collection of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, is the first exhibition in Italy to tell the photographer’s entire story. Over his 50-year career, he successfully immortalised pain and beauty, providing the public with a point of view from an artist who has become immortal - one year after his passing.

The exhibition is curated by Pascal Hoël, in charge of the Collections at the MEP – Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the main French institution for photography. Since the 1980s, the MEP has supported Salgado’s work, collaborating on some of his most important projects and building up an exceptionally valuable collection over the years. To commemorate 40 years of collaboration, in 2018, Sebastião and Lélia Wanick Salgado, in turn, supported the MEP by making an extraordinary donation of 105 photographs.

Through a selection of over 160 photographs, the exhibition Sebastião Salgado retraces all the main series from the artist’s vast body of work. The exhibition is divided into two main sections. The first part of the exhibition features the series Other Americans, Sahel, Serra Pelada Gold Mine – Brazil, Workers, Kuwait, Exodus and Children of the Exodus. These document the first 25 years of the photographer’s career, when he was contending with the violence and suffering of humanity across the globe. The second section is devoted to his most ambitious project, which took over seven years to complete: Genesis is a tribute to the beauty and fragility of a planet that has remained untouched by human folly, and whose preservation is now more crucial than ever.  

The exhibition follows the photographer’s career in chronological order, offering a comprehensive overview of his work, as he himself put it: ‘Everything I have done, taken as a whole, is a reflection of my life’.

The Bassano exhibition offers a unique synthesis of his work and life in a journey of rare intensity and emotion. His photographs show the planet’s unspoilt beauty as well as the environmental challenges and social emergencies. The result is a profound message about rebirth and an urgent invitation to reconnect with nature and humanity’s shared destiny: a message that has made – and continues to make – his art necessary.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue in Italian and English, published by Silvana Editoriale.

There will also be two film screenings of The Salt of the Earth, the documentary directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, which recounts the artist’s extraordinary life and won the ‘Un Certain Regard – Special Jury Prize’ at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014.

The first event will take place on Sunday, 21 June 2026, at 9:00 p.m., on the occasion of the Operaestate cinema preview at Giardino Parolini, in collaboration with Gli Stati Generali della Letteratura in Veneto, promoted by Villa Angaran San Giuseppe. The second is scheduled for the autumn at Metropolis Cinemas in Bassano del Grappa.

The exhibition is promoted and organized by the Municipality and Musei Civici of Bassano del Grappa, MEP – Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris and Silvana Editoriale, under the patronage of  Regione del Veneto

For  information:
→ T +39 0424 519901
→ biglietteriamusei@comune.bassano.vi.it

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Cover image: Sebastião Salgado, Brooks Mountains, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, United States, 2009. MEP Collection, Paris. Donated by Sebastião Salgado and Lélia Wanick Salgado, 2018 © Sebastião Salgado