Sebastião Salgado's polio photographs function as a visual cartography of care, constructing a powerful visual grammar of place-based inequality and collective resilience in global health.
ABSTRACT The death of Brazilian photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado in May 2025 invites renewed reflection on photography's role in shaping global health narratives. Celebrated for his evocative black‐and‐white images that document human suffering and resilience, Salgado's work has addressed international issues, such as labour, migration, indigeneity and environmental degradation. Among an extensive portfolio, his documentation of global polio eradication efforts stands out as a significant yet often overlooked contribution, providing vital insights into the spatial dynamics of a global health campaign. This paper situates Salgado's polio photographs within the context of health geography and visual geography, arguing that these images function not only as humanitarian testimony but also as a visual cartography of care. By analysing the spatial, embodied and ethical dimensions of this work, I examine how visual methodologies can enhance geographies of health, vulnerability and intervention. Salgado's archive of polio photographs constructs a powerful visual grammar of place‐based inequality and collective resilience, while also raising questions about power dynamics in image production, institutional commissioning and the ethics of witnessing. The paper offers geographers a critical lens through which to understand global health as a situated, contested and relational phenomenon.
Stephen Taylor (Sat,) conducted a other in Polio. Sebastião Salgado's polio photographs function as a visual cartography of care, constructing a powerful visual grammar of place-based inequality and collective resilience in global health.
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