Believing that “we’re all inevitably shaped by the environments we grow up in,” Matt Black has been photographing the Central Valley of California since 1995. His work explores the connections between migration, poverty, agriculture, and the environment in the region.

Over the last century, the Central Valley was transformed from a semi-arid region into one of the world’s largest food producers by the importation of water. Today, drought, compounded by decades of insufficient water management and excessive farming, is causing the land to dry up and revert to its semi-arid state. Black’s black-and-white photographs show parched landscapes and shriveled crops—a contrast to the brightly colored fruits and vegetables we encounter in grocery stores.

Beside these damaged lands, Black portrays people working in the fields whose lives are affected most immediately by the changes to the land, from job loss to contaminated tap water and fertilizer exposure.

Matt Black’s work explores the connections between migration, poverty, agriculture, and the environment in his native rural California and in southern Mexico. He has photographed over one hundred communities across 44 U.S. states for his project “The Geography of Poverty.” Black is a contributor to the @everydayusa photographers’ collective. He has produced video pieces for msnbc.com, Orion Magazine, and The New Yorker. He is an Associate Member of Magnum Photos. He received the W. Eugene Smith Award in 2015 and the the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 2016. His work has also been honored by the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Center for Cultural Innovation, and others.