This study deals with the use of photography as a research tool in the Social Sciences and especially in Anthropology, which emerges in the late nineteenth century early twentieth century, addressing macrosocial issues of social reality. Also highlighting the importance of the Mundiologist Sebastião Salgado, to understand the importance of the use of photography in the Social Sciences worldwide, as the use and repercussions of photodocumentary of social denouncement. The text is organized in three parts: The first part will discuss the use of photographic images as a research methodology in the Social Sciences; the second part will deal with Sebastião Salgado's work and thought; and a third part will address the worldview of Sebastião Salgado and the planetary era of image diffusion.