The Home, The Field and The Flux
In Uzbekistan, there is hardly anyone with no relation to the agricultural industry, which forms a quarter of the state’s economy. For centuries, locals have been developing systems of storing and distributing water across mostly dry lands of the steppe. Then, the Russian Empire, and later USSR, had implied irrigation projects to grow and capitalize on cotton which led to ecological disaster—shrinking of the Aral Sea. Now, workers from across the country rent fields as independent seasonal farmers, while others are employed in cotton picking run by giant businesses close to the government. Set at the intersection of indigenous practices, colonial legacies, and the global climate crisis, “The Home, The Field and The Flux” series captures agricultural workers’ life in its variety, oscillating between hard work and familial connection, harsh realities and financial opportunity, severity and warmth.