 If there is a modern master of documentary photography on an epic scale, there would have to be Sebastião Salgado. In the late 1970s and early 80s, 50,000 men swarmed over a mountain in the Brazilian rainforest in search of gold. They were digging by hand and were only with the barest of tools. Some of them were finding up to 270 kilograms of gold in a single day. It was this extraordinary scene of human labour that was rarely witnessed in the modern world that lured photographer Sebastião Salgado with his promise of visual treasure. Here, amongst the men and the mud and the danger, he discovered his own photographic Eldorado. His black and white photographs are breathtaking in a way that they not only capture the vast scale of the natural world, but also the human stories that play out on its surface. Like those diggers hungry for riches, let's mine Salgado's images for their photographic potential. How's it, how's it? Even though it's way back in the midst of time now, I can still remember the first images I saw of Salgado's photography. A fellow student had brought in a copy of the monograph, workers, and there on those pages were images that instantly burned themselves into my consciousness. At the time I knew nothing about Salgado, not his background of growing up on a farm in Brazil, or his activism, or his deep connection to the land and the peoples of what was then called the Third World. What I did know was that things that pleased me visually and these photographs did just that. But why did they please me so much, and why were they able to make such a great impact on me? An impact that has lasted to this very day. Men swarm like ants over a landscape of mud and water. They've been lured there by the prospect of instant wealth, and they toiled in the heat and the danger of the Sarah Palada goldmine in the heart of the Amazon. There had, of course, been other photojournalists visiting the mine before, after all, it was a massive gold rush in Brazil. But they'd arrived, they took a few photographs, and then they left. The scene before them that they witnessed was simply taken at face value, and that was that. A few rolls of coda chrome and onto the next assignment. Salgado's approach though was different. These were his people, this was his land and his passion, and rather than simply spend a day at the mine snapping a few shots for a possible glossy spread in the magazine, he ended up spending four weeks there. All at his own expense, and no security at the end of it of actually having sold the photo essay. Then what a photo essay would turn out to be. In its final form it was likened to an epic poem, but in photographic terms. Indeed, epic is the right word to use when talking about Salgado's photography. And what is it about his photographs that gives us this feeling? Now like the early discoveries of gold, it's there on the surface for us. We just have to look for it. So when we look at his photographs, what do we see straight away? Salgado has been photographing the scene in black and white, while most photographers at the time would probably have gone with colour stock. But why would this be? Spend a little time looking at this photograph. Had it been in colour, there would be little splashes of yellow, a red, or a blue here. Tiny elements that would start to attract our eyes. When photographing in black and white, we remove those distinctions and we allow the photographer to have more control over our gaze, especially when something is as busy visually as this. But something else also happens when colour is removed from the image. Everything in the scene, the men, the implements they are using to shape the earth, and indeed the earth itself have all started to become one. The men are the mind and the mind is the men. They exist because of each other. You can see this in all of Salgado's photography. The idea that the land, nature, people and animals are all one. They're interlinked and part of a single organism that we call earth. In the hands of a lesser photographer, somebody like me, for example, who I'd never seen in the Amazon before, I would have been overwhelmed by the lushness of the forest, this visual assault on my senses. I wouldn't know where to start. It would just be too much. However, because Salgado grew up with these things, because it was in his blood, it was possible. He knew how over-auring the jungle could be. So no doubt some voice deep inside him suggested using black and white film as a way to quieten down a noisy scene that would otherwise threaten to overwhelm the viewer. This is a great concept, especially in today's world where landscape photography tends to be a little bit shouty perhaps, leaning towards the dramatic or the striking colour palettes to create this sense of majesty and awe. While Salgado's photography tends to whisper quietly. It does raise question, though. If everything in the image is equal and is given the same importance, how are you going to create photographs to arrest the eye? So let's dig under the surface a little bit and unearth a few of those nuggets. Traditionally, we're told as photographers that black and white images should have a full range of tones, from pure black to paper white. This is the zone system. If you're not familiar with the zone system, think Anansal Adams' landscape. Salgado's images, on the other hand, feel like the tones are being compressed. They're getting muddy and squished together. Now, despite this flatness, they also have a contrastiness to them. This is a very fine balancing act that helps his photographs to draw our gaze in. Of course, get it wrong and it's too flat and too muddy and the images have all the impact of a damp flannel. Too much dodging and burning and the thing feels contrived. It feels a bit arty and it starts to look like every other black and white landscape photograph. So this visual style of Salgado helps his images to stand apart from everybody else. And of course, because of this, once you've seen a Salgado image, you will recognise his approach in all of them. The look itself has evolved a little bit over the years but the core, the core of it remains. It's this oddly flat yet contrasty vibe. It's no secret that Salgado wants his images to provoke discussion and change. After all, at the heart, he's an activist with a camera. So, but he needs to present this in a way that can get as many people looking at his work as possible. And in this, he's playing a cunning trick on us that his photographs are presented on the surface as art, something to be enjoyed visually. But the more that we look at them, the more that we are lured into this forest of his photography to discover the real gold or the real meaning in his images. Right now, I have a huge favour to ask you. If you are enjoying this video or you know people who might enjoy it, please feel free to share it with other photographer friends or schools or camera clubs. My hope is that the more that we can promote photography as an art to be discussed, you know, the concepts behind it, rather than just gear to talk about, the more that we can inspire other people to start channels, to share their photographic knowledge with us and to create a richer community for the benefit of all. Salgado spent four weeks at the mine photographing the workers. He had taken the time to connect to them, to start to understand them and to see the story unfold. Not in individual images, but as a whole collection. Once we've washed away all the mud and the dirt, we can see that there at the heart of all these images is a solid core of compassion and respect for the people and the places Salgado is photographing. Everyone is treated with dignity and novability. And it's not just in workers that you see this of play, but in all of Salgado's photography, no matter where in the world he is or what he is photographing, all of the images are infused with his essence of life. Look at these photographs. They have a soul. They are visually beautiful, but it isn't what makes us stay with them. What makes us stay with them is that we connect with what we see. It doesn't matter if it's an experience most of us would never have. A cowherd in Africa photographed as if it would look the same as it did a thousand years ago. Penguins flying from icebergs into a frozen sea. Or an oil worker trying to take a raging fire that is spewing from the desert. They all connect to us because it's Salgado who understands that it's not the photographer making the picture, but the thing being photographed. And when that thing is allowed to speak with its own voice, the image comes alive. Unlike those 50,000 miners who turned a 150-foot-high hill into a 170-foot-deep hole, you don't need to sweat and strain to find photographic gold. You can start by keeping eye for the nuggets that are all around you and when you find them, be curious. But also be patient and give them time to speak their story to you. When the time is right, go with your instinct and create your own photography with soul. To see another photographer who creates images full of compassion and meaning, then click here. I'll put it up on the playlist for you right now. Thank you ever so much for being here.