Khabarovsk, far-eastern Russia. In November 2005, the explosion of a petrochemical factory in northern China was the cause of pollution in the River Songhua, one of the Amur River's tributaries. Due to the drift of heavy metals, the pollution entered the river at Khabarovsk, on the border between Russia and China, and continued to drift right through to the river's mouth in the Tatar Strait. In Spring, following the melting of the ice that imprisoned them, the benzene and other polluting products progressively penetrated into the groundwater and today cause a subtle contamination of the water currents and the local flora and fauna. Ten months after this catastrophy, I left for the far east and travelled 300 km down the Amur River to meet with the inhabitants of this region. I wanted my images to capture the transformations in their daily life brought about by this wave of pollution, which is not the first, nor the last of its kind. Today, minority fisher peoples like the Nanai who have traditionally subsisted on gains from fishing and hunting, must turn to other modes of survival, which may involve trafficking and corruption. The fish is unfit for consumption and many locals were ill over the summer months, without the origins of the infections being clearly defined. The Siberian forests burn, the animals disappear and the human toll is inevitable. This series is the result of one month of investigation in these forgotten cities and villages, whose inhabitants feel embittered and without hope. The portraits are accompanied by witnesses' accounts of the current situation of the banks of one of the world's longest rivers from ecological, sanitary, social and economic point of views.
