Magnum Editions Poster: Lake Urmia. Iran, 2016

Newsha Tavakolian has been photographing her home country of Iran for more than two decades, her nuanced work in the country culminating to provide a broad, authored perspective on everyday life. In a series of images featured by National Geographic, Tavakolian documents the vanishing waters of Lake Urmia, once the largest lake in the Middle East. Historically a haven for birds and bathers alike, the lake has lost 80% of its volume since the 1980s and is tinged a deep red by Dunaliella algae, one of the few species that can survive in such salty water. Pictured here, people enter the crimson waters to swim and ride pedal boats.