Sweet Salt Of Emptiness

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In Soviet times, Uzbekistan had to grow cotton in huge quantities. Water of the rivers which flow into the Aral Sea, was used to irrigate the fields. Less and less water reached the Aral Sea. Its dehydratation began which caused other problems. Drying out in the desert turned over by 100 degrees, drinking water ran out. All fish factories were closed. If in 1960 fishing catch amounted to 40,000 tons, in the mid-80s it decreased to only 2 tons. Local fisheries simply ceased to exist, more than 60,000 jobs were lost. Many fishermen found themselves without work. People were forced to leave their homes and look for a new residence in order to find a job and feed their families. Today there is not a single species of fish in the sea, only Artemy plankton. Pesticides used for irrigation of fields got into the groundwater. This documentary photography is not only about disappearance of the Aral Sea, but also about people whose lives, continuously depleted, are being tested every day.