Sand has drunk the waters of Lake Faguibin, the largest in Western Africa. Men had to emigrate and find work elsewhere, leaving behind women, old people and children. Mali, 1985.

"During 1984 and 1985, Salgado photographed those suffering from famine in the Sahel region of Africa while donating his services to the French relief group Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). Not only did he make extraordinarily dignified, graceful, empathetic images of those living and dying in the cataclysm of disaster in the course of several long visits over fifteen months, but he also recorded the activities of those who labored in the shadow of apocalypse--the young volunteer doctors, nurses and civil engineers."

--Fred Ritchin

scroll -->

The people in the area have scouted out the arrival of food and first aid and travel in great numbers, often from far away. Bati, Ethiopia, 1984.

"The trees have arms, the people, branches. ... And still they are standing, inexplicably standing, beneath a heaven that forsakes them."

--Eduardo Galeano

The refugee camp of Korem. Ethiopia, 1984.