When Maria Zadneprovskaya first saw the Aral Sea in 2021, she was overcome by a ... Alimbetova would often run down to the beach for a swim and an ice cream with her siblings.

Near the shoreline the muddy sand is wet, like a beach with an ebbing tide. But the Aral doesn’t have a perceptible tide—what we’re seeing is the sea actually receding before our eyes.

A photojournalist’s pitch turned into a project that took this team to a remote area rarely covered by news outlets Photojournalist Ebrahim Noroozi had a vision when he pitched a story on the Aral Sea ...