THE EYES

#Environment health climate change water human

Solmaz Daryani

Photographer based in United Kingdom

enterance of Seyed Agha's home,.Seyed agha Ghasemi and her wife Narges, old residents of Sharafkhaneh port had a motel near the coast, where he made his living renting rooms and swan boat rides to the tourists who flocked to the area. As Lake Urmia dried up, tourism and agriculture waned. The motel has been vacant and the swan boats unused for years. they turned the motel to a small garden now.Sharafkhaneh port East Azerbaijan province, Iran; August 2014

On the shore of Sharafkhaneh port in 2015, an abandoned ship sits wedged against a pier that leads nowhere. Sharafkhaneh port was once one of the most important ports on the lake Urmia. Ships used these piers to move people and equipment between cities around the lake. It has shut down, and few remaining ships have gone aground.

enterance of Seyed Agha's home,.Seyed agha Ghasemi and her wife Narges, old residents of Sharafkhaneh port had a motel near the coast, where he made his living renting rooms and swan boat rides to the tourists who flocked to the area. As Lake Urmia dried up, tourism and agriculture waned. The motel has been vacant and the swan boats unused for years. they turned the motel to a small garden now.Sharafkhaneh port East Azerbaijan province, Iran; August 2014

Poeple came to see lake Urmia .thay take picture with lake that in recent months shows signs of recovery in some small parts. Good rain fall(El Nino) combined with the opening of Boukan dam seem to have set the lake on path to recovery in very small regions But the lake is far from a complete recovery which now barely contains 5% of the water it held less than 20 years ago."Shahid Kalantari" Highway,West Azerbaijan,Iran,2016 Iran

The dry bed of the lake is a source of salty dust that can be whipped up by strong winds into a dust storm. West-Azerbaijan, Iran.2016 Iran

enterance of Seyed Agha's home,.Seyed agha Ghasemi and her wife Narges, old residents of Sharafkhaneh port had a motel near the coast, where he made his living renting rooms and swan boat rides to the tourists who flocked to the area. As Lake Urmia dried up, tourism and agriculture waned. The motel has been vacant and the swan boats unused for years. they turned the motel to a small garden now.Sharafkhaneh port East Azerbaijan province, Iran; August 2014

Poeple came to see lake Urmia .thay take picture with lake that in recent months shows signs of recovery in some small parts. Good rain fall(El Nino) combined with the opening of Boukan dam seem to have set the lake on path to recovery in very small regions But the lake is far from a complete recovery which now barely contains 5% of the water it held less than 20 years ago."Shahid Kalantari" Highway,West Azerbaijan,Iran,2016 Iran

The dry bed of the lake is a source of salty dust that can be whipped up by strong winds into a dust storm. West-Azerbaijan, Iran.2016 Iran

A young group of people came to walk around Lake Urmia. This places used to be covered with water less than a decade ago. The nearly six million people who live in the Urmia basin have deep social and economic ties with this shrinking body of water. The Turk-Azeri people, who live around the lake, treasure it as a symbol of their identity, calling it “the turquoise solitaire of Azerbaijan.” 2016 Iran

Seyed Agha,my grandfather, used to own a guesthouse on the coast and made his living by renting rooms and offering swan-boat rides to the many tourists who frequented the area. As Lake Urmia dried up, tourism and agriculture waned. The motel and swan boats have been unused for years. My grandparents turned the motel into a garden after the lake dried up, and they visited it in the summers to pick fruits. East-Azerbaijan, Iran. 2015