Sebastião Salgado, Kuwait

[0:00] [music]

Dr. Steven Zucker: [0:05] We’re in the LACMA Study Center for Photography and Works on Paper, and we’re looking at a large print by the photographer Sebastião Salgado.

Eve Schillo: [0:14] This image is entitled “Kuwait.” Salgado was on assignment documenting what became known as “A Desert on Fire.”

Dr. Zucker: [0:22] What we’re seeing is not pools of water. We’re seeing pools of oil. The men are coated in the oil that they’re trying to bring under control. You can see the force of that oil as it comes out of the earth.

[0:35] Saddam Hussein, the ruler of the larger neighboring country of Iraq, invaded the tiny oil-rich kingdom of Kuwait. When it became clear that coalition forces would be driving him out, Hussein’s military began to lay explosives in the oil fields of Kuwait, and so hundreds of oil wells were burning. This was one of the world’s greatest environmental disasters.

Eve: [0:58] This image, in black and white, to me can’t even exist as a color image. Salgado has perfected the tonality that is in a black-and-white image, from the very liquid version of a gray that is the pools of oil to the soft pixelated sky, which is pixelated because it’s filled with smoke and haze.

Dr. Zucker: [1:19] The photographer described the atmosphere as Dante-esque. He described this as a living hell. It was a terribly dangerous place. He knew people who had been killed because those lakes of oil would sometimes simply ignite. Because the figures are completely coated in oil, they look like bronze sculptures. They look frozen in time.

Eve: [1:41] Salgado’s practice involves traveling the globe, documenting these geopolitical actions that affect all of humanity. This was one of the most horrific, mostly because it was left unchecked. The US coalition came in, did its deed, and this was the aftereffect. Salgado’s often focusing on those push-pull moments when the environment is made vulnerable.

Dr. Zucker: [2:05] Salgado was originally an economist. Although he’s Brazilian, he earned a PhD in economics in Paris, and then at the age of 30 took up photography. For me, at least, that explains to some extent his interest in subjects that do transform our world.

Eve: [2:20] He focused early in his career on those who were working in manual labor around the globe. He very sympathetically was depicting the honest labor that was still occurring in this mechanized, industrial world.

Dr. Zucker: [2:36] Even here, though we’re not looking at poorly paid laborers — these are some of the very few people on Earth who had the expertise to put out a flaming wellhead and then to cap that well even though the head had been destroyed.

[2:48] The photographer is able to give us a sense of the complications of this process in this single photograph, where in the foreground we see a gusher, but in the background, beyond lakes of oil, we see wellheads that are still aflame.

Eve: [3:01] Until you read that background, this can be read almost as a triumphant image — the worker, spouting black oil — but in fact it’s the polar opposite. It’s the great humanist struggle, the balance between living on the Earth well and living on the Earth poorly.

Dr. Zucker: [3:19] Salgado is informed by earlier photographers.

Eve: [3:22] Lewis Hine comes to mind. He documented the workers who built all the superstructures in New York, but prior to that, he documented the children who were working in factories. Like Salgado, he took a stance.

[3:37] He made his photography effect a change in the world. His imagery of child laborers eventually changed our labor law in America. Salgado is that same type of photographer. While the images are fine art, there’s also a true purpose to his practice, which is to evoke a change, whether that be policy, politics, or other.

Dr. Zucker: [3:58] What I find interesting about this photograph is what he’s left out. We don’t see the Iraqi or the American military. We don’t see the coalition that pushed out the Iraqi army. What we’re seeing is the devastation of the landscape and the heroism of the men who were working here.

[4:13] [music]

Learn more about the Gulf War

Listen to oral histories from soldiers who served in the Persian Gulf War

Read more about the environmental impact of the Gulf War

See satellite images of the oil spill

Read about a documentary film made about Sebastião Salgado

Read an interview with Sebastião Salgado about his work

Read an article in Smithsonian Magazine that highlights Sebastião Salgado’s environmental activism

Sebastião Salgado’s official website

Key points

• In 1990, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein led an invasion of its oil-rich neighbor, Kuwait. An international coalition, led by the United States, forced his withdrawal in February 1991. As Iraqi troops fled, they were ordered to set fire to 605 oil wells, causing one of the world’s greatest environmental disasters.
• Photographer Sebastião Salgado documents geopolitical actions that have widespread impact; during this crisis, he was on assignment in Kuwait and captured an image of the dangerous labor required to extinguish these fires and cap the oil wells. He described the scene as a living hell, as these workers were surrounded by flammable pools of oil and endless fields of fire in the aftermath of the war.
• While this photograph conveys the hazards and labors of these highly-skilled workers, Salgado uses a range of sensuous tonalities to create a work of fine art. Coated in oil, the men look like bronze sculptures, frozen in time. Trained as an economist, Salgado’s work often features labor and aims to inspire political action.

More to think about

In this work, Salgado creates a strikingly beautiful image of a devastating environmental tragedy. Why do you think he might have chosen such a visually-appealing presentation? Does this help the photograph to have a greater effect on society and bring about change? Why or why not?