Salgado and Ricciardi: two books, two ways of looking

Two photographers can share an affinity without producing the same image. WAYFARER Brazil’s September 2026 account of A Elegância do Olhar at Galeria Mario Cohen considered the meeting between Sebastião Salgado’s Amazônia and Mirella Ricciardi’s Vanishing Africa.

Curated by Lilian Pacce, the exhibition brought together 17 photographs. The source announced it for 29 September to 11 November 2026. Some of Ricciardi’s images were being presented in Brazil for the first time, giving the dialogue another dimension beyond a comparison of familiar works.

The archive described correspondences between figures, objects and landscapes: a Marubo girl with a ceramic vessel, a Turkana woman carrying a wooden bowl. These visual relationships did not collapse the distinct territories into one setting. They invited attention to posture, adornment and the ways a person occupies a photographed space.

The original article also related the exhibition to an account of Lélia Wanick Salgado giving her husband Ricciardi’s book early in his career. That story supplies a personal connection, while the pictures themselves remain the principal evidence for the exhibition’s argument.

Marking the gallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the presentation returned to photography as a sustained subject rather than a temporary theme. Its strongest proposition was that influence need not erase authorship. The two bodies of work could be placed side by side, with similarities visible and differences intact. Dates here record the announced programme; they do not substitute for checking access before visiting.

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Adapted from the WAYFARER Brazil archive, first published 2026-09-24. English adaptation: 6 October 2026. This is an archival account, not a report of a new visit. Exhibitions, collections and menu details are described in their original context, not as current availability.