--- title: 'Middle East Oil': Photos From a Fabulous, Troubled Region in 1945 description: Page layouts from the earliest feature any publication anywhere ever published on the Middle East's fraught and lucrative petroleum industry. canonical: https://time.com/3871106/middle-east-oil-the-original-life-magazine-layouts/ author: Liz Ronk article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-02-05T22:09:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:56.588Z og:title: 'Middle East Oil': The First Major Magazine Article, Anywhere og:description: Page layouts from the earliest feature any publication anywhere ever published on the Middle East's fraught and lucrative petroleum industry og:url: https://time.com/3871106/middle-east-oil-the-original-life-magazine-layouts/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf00cb39733c9b60a/698846d2428a9e412cccc417/oil0011.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Middle East Oil by Dmitri Kessel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Middle East Oil': The First Major Magazine Article, Anywhere twitter:description: Page layouts from the earliest feature any publication anywhere ever published on the Middle East's fraught and lucrative petroleum industry twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf00cb39733c9b60a/698846d2428a9e412cccc417/oil0011.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Middle East Oil': The First Major Magazine Article, Anywhere by [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Feb 5, 2012 10:09 PM CUT  "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945. "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945.Life Magazine—Time & Life Pictures by [Liz Ronk](/author/liz-ronk/) ## Liz Ronk Feb 5, 2012 10:09 PM CUT Included in this gallery are the page layouts from the earliest feature any publication anywhere ever published on the Middle East’s fraught and lucrative petroleum industry: a massive photo essay in the June 11, 1945, issue of LIFE magazine titled, simply, “Middle East Oil,” that provided (in LIFE’s words) “the first complete look at this fabulous and troublesome part of the world.” Photographer Dmitri Kessel spent eight weeks traveling and photographing in Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. (“It was so hot,” LIFE informed its readers of the photographer’s time in the desert, “that for periods Kessel could not handle his camera without scorching his hands.”) The result is a remarkable chronicle of a world both familiar and impossibly remote, where preteen dynastic kings, transplanted Texas wildcatters and armies of anonymous workers play out their lives amid the forces shaping the region’s landscape and transforming ancient cultures: the towering oil wells and refineries so colossal they sometimes seem ready to dwarf the desert itself. ---  "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945. Life Magazine—Time & Life Pictures  "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945. Life Magazine—Time & Life Pictures  "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945. Life Magazine—Time & Life Pictures  "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945. Life Magazine—Time & Life Pictures  "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945. Life Magazine—Time & Life Pictures  "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945. Life Magazine—Time & Life Pictures  "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945. Life Magazine—Time & Life Pictures  "Middle East Oil": The original LIFE magazine layouts, June 11, 1945. 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