Sebastiao Salgado went through incredible feats to obtained these pictures. He risked his life to capture the horrible disaster that was occurring in Kuwait. Just knowing what he endured makes these pictures powerful however, the content of the photos is a different story.

The first thing I noticed was that all the pictures were black and white. Taking a closer look I found that the use of black and white had this effect on the way I saw the fire and smoke. They appeared to me as more powerful and scary than how I would see them through my own eyes. I think the distinction of the light from the fire and the darkness from clouds of smoke cause this effect. The background of each picture being dark sets a mood of hopelessness and sadness especially when these huge clouds of light are compared in size to the firefighters. I feel that a good representation of what I felt can be seen in the 1^st picture.

But I feel that not all pictures should have been in black and white. A few pictures would have had more of an impact on me if they were in color. Pictures such as the 2^nd picture is a good representation of what I’m talking about. Here the men look almost like toys. The black and white makes the men look painted over with the effect it has on the oil on them. I don’t know if this was intentional but for me, it removes the mood I had of the event when comparing this picture to the 1^st picture.