数幅照片直击极度干旱的加利福尼亚(多图)

Stark photos of CAlifornia's devastating drought

数幅照片直击极度干旱的加利福尼亚

A shepherd rests after loading sheep fortransport. Firebaugh, California.

一名牧羊人装载完羊群后立在栅栏前休息。加利福亚，法尔博。

A dry wheat field. Ducor, California.

干旱的麦田。加利福尼亚，杜克。

Water well gone dry. Stratford, California.

水井干枯。加利福尼亚，斯特拉特福德。

A dead alMond orchard is removed near Los Banos, California.

加利福尼亚巴诺斯市附近一座废弃的杏仁果园。

Children at home in Alpaugh, California.

孩子在加利福尼亚阿尔波（Alpaugh）市的家中。

Harvesting asparagus. Firebaugh, California.

收割芦笋。加利福尼亚，法尔博。

Fallowed tomato fields near Corcoran, California.

加利福尼亚科克伦附近的番茄休耕地。

Tomato harvest. Firebaugh, California.

收获番茄。加利福尼亚，法尔博。

A flock of sheep in a denuded wheat field. Mendota, California.

行走在麦田裸露地表上的一群羊。加利福尼亚，门多塔。

Loading sheep for transport to new rsfield, California.

将羊装载到新的牧场。加利福尼亚，贝克尔斯菲市。

Main street in Taft, California.

加利福尼亚塔夫特（Taft）的主干道。

California is in the midst of its worst drought in more than a century. Morethan half the state is in "exceptional drought," the driest conditionspossible, according to the United States Drought Monitor. And after threestraight years of little rainfall and predictions of a drier than usual winter,there's no sign of relief.

一百多年来，加利福尼亚一直极度严重的干旱之中。据全美旱情监测项目，该州一半以上的面积处于“极度干旱”，可能达到了干旱的极限。继连续三年降雨量稀少以及预测将迎来干旱于往常的冬日，情况没有缓解的迹象。

The pain of the drought has been feltsharpest in California's Central Valley, long described as the nation's breadbasket because itprovides more than 50 percent of the country's food supply. Water reservoirsare empty, and wells have run dry. Residents in some tiny towns have no runningwater at all. Many have likened it to a modern day Dust Bowl, andphotographer Matt Black has been documenting it all, producing starkimages that are eerily reminiscent of the work produced by actual Dust Bowlphotographers, including Dorothea Lange and ArthurRothstein.

加利福尼亚中央山谷受苦尤甚，由于为国家供应过半的食物，这里自古就被称作国家的面包篮。水库的水用完了，井水也已干涸，一些小镇的居民没有任何的流水可用。很多人将这里比作今日的风沙侵蚀区。摄影师Matt Black将这些都记录了下来，这些荒凉的照片令人可怕地想起摄影师们创作的真实反映风沙侵蚀区的作品，这些摄影师们包括Dorothea Lange和Arthur Rothstein。

But it's more than just a photographyproject. It's personal. Black, who grew up in Visalia,Calif., the agricultural heart of the Central Valley, has been documenting the land of hischildhood slowly waste away, starved of the water that farmers desperately needto keep their crops and livelihoods alive. He's been focused not just on theland but on the people—the farmers and the workers, both—who are struggling to survive.

但这不仅仅是一个摄影项目，这也是个人记事。加利福尼亚维赛利亚是中央山谷的农业中心地带，在这里长大的Black一直记录着这块渐渐荒芜、缺乏让农民渴望将农作物养活以求得谋生之道的水源的土地。他关注的不只是土地，还有人——那些求生的农民和工人。