Salgado decided to become a photographer while in Africa as an economist in the early 1970s. He has gained international acclaim for his large-scale photographic projects, including a study of manual labor around the world and for "Migrations: Humanity in Transition." His many awards include the W. Eugene Smith Award for Humanitarian Photography and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Life Legend Award. A member of Magnum from 1979 until 1994, Salgado is now represented by his own agency, Amazonas Images.