Magnum Editions Poster: El Sharara Oil Field. Libya, 2014.

Born and raised in Rome, Italy, Lorenzo Meloni has spent almost a decade photographing conflict in the Middle East.

In 2013 Meloni photographed the spillover of Syria’s war into neighbouring Lebanon, and in 2015 embedded with Libyan forces who were trying to stop the Islamist militants from gaining ground in Libya.

This photograph was taken in Libya’s Murzuq desert in December of 2015, near El Sharana, the country’s largest oil field.Pictured is a member of the Third Force, a that established significant control in southwestern Libya during the country’s civil war. Operating under the Tripoli government of the time, the Third Force secured oil fields, acted to enforce law and order, and maintained a level of peace in the region.