SEBASTIÃO SALGADO (1944–2025) - Workers, Greater Burhan Oil Field, Desert on Fire, Kuwait 1991
€6,000 – 8,000
Shipping Information
Vintage silver print
24,2 x 36,1 cm (9.5 x 14.2 in)
Signed and annotated (with technical details) by the photographer in pencil on the reverse
The print comes with the original issue of the New York Times magazine from 1991
PROVENANCE Gifted by the artist to Rolf Fricke (Marketing Director Kodak Eastman, LHSA) and comes from his Estate.
LITERATURE Sebastião Salgado, Kuwait. A Desert on Fire, Cologne 2022, p.35
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 first published in the New York Times Magazine in 1991 and subsequently by numerous European publications. In recognition of this work, Salgado was awarded the Oskar Barnack Award by the World Press Photo Foundation in 1992.