The Gulf Wars

The Collection / Conflicts

The Gulf Wars

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KUWAIT. 1991. Next to a tank destroyed by US aerial bombing, a dead Iraqi soldier is mummified by drops of oil escaping from wells, set on fire by the soldier's unit before it retreated. | License

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KUWAIT. 1991. The two American technicians had come to collect samples of polluted air for analysis back in the States. The scene reminded me of the Bible's Apocalypse, where the sky turns black, refusing rays of sun, changing human and animal life cycles into nothingness. | License

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KUWAIT. Kuwait city. 1991. Kuwaiti woman, wearing an Islamic hijab, talks to a US soldier. | License

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KUWAIT. 1991. The tank had been abandoned by Iraqis in their retreat. Scavengers had taken souvenire pieces. A cow came looking for food. In the background an oil well is blazing. | License

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KUWAIT. 1991. The wild duck, covered with oil, was in agony. I was fascinated by her eyes in distress. | License

KUWAIT. Kuwait city. French soldier demining the beach. 1991.

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KUWAIT. Kuwait city. 1991. French soldier demining the beach. | License

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KUWAIT. 1991. The old cars were slowly being covered by sand. The oil wells were burning in the background. To me this was an image of "our consumer society gone mad". | License

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IRAQ. 1991. We were on our way to Basra, hoping to cover the Shi'ite rebellion which had just started. We were waiving at Iraqi soldiers on their tanks, hoping they would not arrest us. Four cars ahead of us, made it through a checkpoint further up the road. We turned back. They were arrested, and held for five days by Iraqi soldiers. They lost their cars and all their camera equipment. | License

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IRAQ. 1991. Two US soldiers planting the American flag. They were manning the last American checkpoint. Iraqi Republic Guards were just one kilometer away. | License

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IRAQ. Baghdad. 2003. A wounded personnel is evacuated by US forces after the suicide bombing of the UN headquarters on August 19. | License

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IRAQ. Karbala. 2003. Inside the shrine of Imam HUSSEIN, Shia men beat their chest as a sign of mourning during Aarbayine. This ritual ends the month of Ashura when Imam HUSSEIN was killed in a war of succession at the dawn of Islam. | License

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IRAQ. Baghdad. 2003. After the occupation of the capital by US troops, looters take away a television set. On the pavement of the Republican bridge a dead donkey rots. | License

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IRAQ. Baghdad. 2003. A statue of President Saddam HUSSEIN decapitated after US troops occupied the capital. | License

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IRAQ. Baghdad. 2003. A bronze head of President Saddam HUSSEIN is paraded in the streets after US troops occupied the capital. | License

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        Kuwait 1991 The day after its release by a coalition led by the Americans, I discovered a Kuwait littered with debris of the war – corpses of Iraqi soldiers.

        Before withdrawing, the Iraqis torched 600 oil wells, whose immense flames set the horizon ablaze. A dull rage seizes me in the face of this waste: it is not only the capital of the Kuwaitis that is going up in smoke, it is also the natural heritage that we must pass on to our children that is being destroyed. I cannot, however, stop myself from being fascinated by these flames measuring tens of meters tall. Are they the atavism of the Zoroastrians of Iran, worshippers of the purifying fire?

        When the wind turns, thick fumes obscure the sky. It is night in broad daylight – a sign which, according to the Bible, announces the Apocalypse.

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