SEBASTIÃO SALGADO (* 1944) - Greater Burhan Oil Field, Desert on Fire, Kuwait 1991

Gelatin silver print 

34 x 51,5 cm

Signed, titled and dated by the photographer in pencil on the reverse

PROVENANCE The print comes directly from the photographer's studio

LITERATURE Sebastião Salgado, Kuwait. A Desert on Fire, Cologne 2022, cover.

In 1991, as the U.S.-led anti-Iraqi coalition began to drive Iraqi forces out of occupied Kuwait, Saddam Hussein's troops set fire to hundreds of oil wells. Sebastião Salgado traveled to Kuwait during those dramatic days to document the desperate efforts of the firefighting teams that had taken up the fight against the inferno. Thick clouds of black sand and soot billowed over the region. Salgado's characteristically monochromatic images capture the ruthlessness of the apocalyptic scenes. They were published in the New York Times Magazine in 1991 and subsequently by numerous European publications. In 1992, Salgado received the World Press Photo Foundation's Oskar Barnack Award for the iconic series.