There is no hope for rain anymore!

After three decades of drought crisis in the Urmia Lake will finally be left with only 2% of the lake area in 2024, which will be completely dry in the hot summer months. Environmentalists believe that complete dryness of the lake will change ...

After three decades of drought crisis in the Urmia Lake will finally be left with only 2% of the lake area in 2024, which will be completely dry in the hot summer months. Environmentalists believe that complete dryness of the lake will change the climate and this is a danger to the ecosystem and people living around it.

Since 2016, I have been photographing the conditions of the lake and I believed that we should hope for rain to fill the lake again. But now there is no hope for rain anymore!

I soaked my printed photos of the lake in salty water and dried them in front of the summer sun and rephotography those prints. The destructive effect of salt on prints is the same as the opinion of environmentalists who have predicted the occurrence of salt storms after the complete drying of the lake, which will cause the destruction of agricultural lands and cause various skin and respiratory diseases for people living around the lake.

© Mehrdad Vahed - Rephotography from printed photo that took in Sharafkhaneh Port, Feb 2019
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Sharafkhaneh Port, Feb 2019

© Mehrdad Vahed - Rephotography from printed photo that took in Highway Bridge, Feb 2019
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Highway Bridge, Feb 2019

© Mehrdad Vahed - Rephotography from printed photo that took in Zangi, Mar 2021
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Zangi, Mar 2021

© Mehrdad Vahed - Rephotography from printed photo that took in Ghamichi, Mar 2022
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Ghamichi, Mar 2022

© Mehrdad Vahed - Rephotography from printed photo that took in Sharafkhaneh Port, Feb 2019
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Sharafkhaneh Port, Feb 2019

© Mehrdad Vahed - Rephotography from printed photo that took in Highway Bridge, Feb 2019
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Highway Bridge, Feb 2019

© Mehrdad Vahed - Image from the There is no hope for rain anymore! photography project
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Chichast, Sep 2021Chichast, is the old name of the Urmia Lake in Avesta (the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism), meaning shining white because of the salt in shores of the lake. Millions of tons of salt accumulated on the lake floor have created the risk of salt storms. Occurrence of salt storms makes farmlands uncultivable ...

© Mehrdad Vahed - Rephotography from printed photo that took in Rahmanlou Port, Sep 2019
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Rahmanlou Port, Sep 2019

© Mehrdad Vahed - Rephotography from printed photo that took in Highway Bridge, Feb 2019
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Highway Bridge, Feb 2019

© Mehrdad Vahed - Rephotography from printed photo that took in Highway Bridge, Feb 2019
i

Rephotography from printed photo that took in Highway Bridge, Feb 2019