The theme of animals in Steve McCurry’s photographic stories appears in 1991, when he enters Kuwait at the end of the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein, in retreat, orders to burn more than six hundred oil wells scattered throughout the country causing a great ecological disaster; Steve McCurry documents the consequences on the animal genus of that demonstration of human wickedness.

His images are memorable, like the camels on the flaming horizon or the shots dedicated to the migratory fauna, including the famous red-eyed bird completely submerged by oil. McCurry’s photographs go around the world and win the World Press Photo in 1992 for the fifth time. Even today, these images are published by the world press when it deals with topics related to the preservation of the planet.

Dramatic shots, such as those of the Gulf War, alternate with poetic images, interactions with man, hilarious portraits of remote ethnic groups but also wild animals, or others allowing human survival, exploited to counteract misery.