In this series, Ebrahim Noroozi: Snapshots of Iran , we’re publishing some of the acclaimed Iranian photographer’s most powerful images.

Iranian photographer Ebrahim Noroozi has made a career out of capturing the unseen in his homeland. The three-time World Press Awards winner is unafraid to focus on dark, heavy, troubling subjects, such as the spectacle of public execution, or the residual impact of extreme domestic violence. While these series have been focused on the immediate and visible, this week we’re looking at one of Noroozi’s most beautiful - but no less tragic - collections: The Lake on its Last Legs.

Formerly the largest salt lake in the Middle East, Lake Urmia has receded at an astonishing rate in the last two decades, shrinking to 10 percent of its 1995 capacity on account of rising global temperatures - one of the worst ecological disasters to date across the continent.

"I feel that it’s my duty to display the terrible things that happen at the hands of humans"