The photograph I chose is called Gold Mine. It was taken by Sebãstio Salgado who is a Brazilian-born photojournalist and social documentary photographer. Salgado traveled in over 120 countries for his projects and in 1979 he joined the prestigious Magnum Photos cooperative for photojournalists. He has many famous works centered around portraying marginalized groups, including Terra: Struggles of the Landless and Workers — a striking portrait of the working class. The black and white image I picked is part of Salgado’s renown Serra Pelada collection that is comprised of 28 images, all taken at the Serra Pelada gold mine in Brazil in 1986. The photos were impressive due to their ambition, honesty, artistic mastery, and the fact that Serra Pelada was Brazil’s largest and most dangerous gold mine. The photograph was not staged, but quite the opposite. Indeed, to get the most accurate depiction of events taking place at the mine, Salgado committed to living at the Serra Pelada for several weeks, while he observed the brutal conditions that the mine’s workers had to face. Many of the pictures depict hundreds of tightly packed workers who are climbing up and down the cliff and carrying heavy weight on their backs. The workers appear very small in comparison to the cliff itself, most likely serving as a representation of their low social status. Meanwhile, some of the other images are of workers digging pits, as well as powerful portraits that reveal the unimaginable toil that the Serra Pelada gold mine workers experienced on a daily basis.