The whole Borca family, from Breb, puts finishing touches on one of the 40 haystacks it makes each summer. Maramures, Romania. June 2012. © Rena Effendi.
The Borca family relaxes after a working day that started early. Gheorghe (white shirt) and Anuța Borca (also in white) were married in July 1995, bang in the middle of the grass-cutting season. The honeymoon had to be shortened. “We started making hay again one week after the wedding,” Anuța says ruefully. This photograph was made in Maramureș, the Romanian-speaking part of northern Transylvania. Romania. June, 2012. © Rena Effendi.
Andrei Rus, 12, relaxes in his father’s palinca still in Strâmtura. Palinca—the name for all kinds of fruit brandy—can be as much as 58 proof here. The stills require copious amounts of cooling water and are nearly always on the banks of streams—as are fulling machines, which use water-driven hammers to thicken up the fibers of woolen cloth. Maramures, Romania. November, 2012. © Rena Effendi.
Maria Cupcea, 30 (at left), stands in the hallway of the old house in Breb where her mother, Ileana Paul, 64, still lives. “I hope my children won’t continue to live in this village,” Cupcea says. “Life is too hard here.” Maramures, Romania. June 2012. © Rena Effendi.
Anuța Vişovan, 70, tends the fire at a still owned by her neighbor, in Breb, for making palinca, the plum, apple, or pear brandy whose name means simply “distilled spirit.” A fiercely delicious dram of it is given to every visitor. “When the first thing you do is have some palinca,” Lorinț Opriş, mill owner at Sârbi, says, “you know it’s going to be a good day.” Maramures, Romania. October, 2012. © Rena Effendi.
Irina Veciunca is comforted at the burial of her husband, Ștefan, who died in June 2012 in Poienili de sub Munte. Maramures, Romania. June, 2012. © Rena Effendi.
Bride waits in the bedroom before her appearance in the wedding party. Khinaliq village. July 2009. © Rena Effendi.
Sadaget bakes bread in a tandoor oven at home in Khinaliq village, Azerbaijan’s highest populated point where about 1000 shepherd families have settled at an altitude of 2350 meters above the sea. Archeological evidence suggests that Khinaliq has been inhabited for over five millennia. People speak the endangered language of Khinaluq, which has already lost its written form. Like all other women in the village, Sadaget’s life is deprived of domestic comforts since even basic amenities are absent in the village. There is no running water, but the springs nearby and no gas supply in the kitchens. Women mostly stay home looking after the family household while the men graze their sheep flocks in the mountain pastures around the village. Khinaliq Village, Azerbiajan. 2006. © Rena Effendi.
Zulfiya with her six year old brother Behjat at home in Khinaliq village. Azerbaijan. 2006. © Rena Effendi.
Sheger’s husband Kabir with his hunting trophies at home in Khinaliq village. Feburary, 2018. © Rena Effendi.
Sisters boiling chickpeas for Tikya Bozbash, a meal of mutton, potatos and vegetables cooked in a broth to be served for the wedding guests. Xinaliq village. July 2009. © Rena Effendi.
While most of the beaches in the Baku coast-line have been privatized, Shikhov beach, about 20 minutes by car south-west of the Baku city center is one of the few remaining public (free access) beaches in close vicinity of the city. Soviet era oil rig structures are stagnant in the background. Baku, July 2016. © Rena Effendi.
Naftalan Petroleum Medical Center, about 3.5 hours drive west of Baku in Naftalan this oil spa facility offers petroleum baths to patients with various conditions, ranging from arthritis to skin rashes. Naftalan oil is believed to have antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties. 29 July 2016 Naftalan, Azerbaijan. © Rena Effendi.
The Mukhtarov family have been living in their dacha since the father - Saranj moved there in 1954. Kurdakhani village on the Absheron peninsula located about 25 km norheast of Baku is a popular location for 'dachas or summer homes by the sea. Baku, Azerbaijan. June 2016. © Rena Effendi.
Anastasia Vanishvilli, 11 y.o. refugee from Gori collecting bread at the newly established tent camp in Mtsheta. August 12, 2008. © Rena Effendi.
Bombed Russian military base in Tshinvali. South Ossetia. August 16, 2008. © Rena Effendi.
Ala Tarasova 68 y.o., ethnically Russian flet Sukhumi, Abkhazia 17 years ago after her husband and son had been killed in the war. Ever since has been living alone in a refugee camp in Tskhvari Chamia, where a new flow of refugees had arrived from South Ossetia this week. August 14, 2008. © Rena Effendi.
Bombed buildings on Telman street in the outskirts of Tshinvali, South Ossetia. August 16, 2008. © Rena Effendi.
Birch tree growing on the second floor of a GYM in the abandoned city of Prypiats. As a result of the nuclear accident and the subsequent radioactive fallout the entire population of Prypiats had been evacuated and never returned home. Chernobyl, Ukraine. December 2010. © Rena Effendi.
Galina Konyushok butchered a chicken to cook a broth. The food chain has been contaminated with radiation, especially animals that consume local food, such as grain and vegetation from the zone. Zirka village, Chernobyl. Ukraine. December 2010. © Rena Effendi.
Shauncina Lovejoy, age 12 hugging her aunt Jada Longie 39 y.o. near the Crow Hill Sun Dance grounds. "I can take you in, my girl..." - Jada says to Shauncina. Spirit Lake, North Dakota. April, 2013. © Rena Effendi.
Anna’s deer heads. Crow Hill, Spirit Lake Reservation, North Dakota. April, 2013. © Rena Effendi.
Felicia Owlboy, age 19, at her aunt Jada's home in St. Michaels. The tattoo on her arm is dedicated to her father who hung himself. Spirit Lake, North Dakota. April, 2013. © Rena Effendi.
Young boy playing in the dried up bushes along the shore of Spirit Lake. August 2014. © Rena Effendi.
Sacheen. St. Michaels, Spirit Lake. North Dakota. August 2014. © Rena Effendi.
Jordyn braids her mother Jayda's hair in the morning at grandpa Frank's home in St. Michaels. Spirit Lake. August 2018. © Rena Effendi.
Workers harvest salt in Dharasana, Gujarat. In May 1930, the month after Gandhi led a march to protest British restrictions on salt, activists trained in nonviolent resistance marched here and were savagely beaten, a seminal event that advanced India’s drive for independence. March, 20013, Gujarat, India. © Rena Effendi.
Where Gandhi once walked on his famous Salt March to protest British rule, tribal women in Kapletha are still weighed down by poverty. At a brick kiln they earn less than three dollars a day. Gujarat, India. March 2013. © Rena Effendi.
Maya Rathore 9 y.o. fishing under a banyan tree in Kavi Kamboi village. The village is 500 meters away from Sumeshwar temple on the banks of the estuary of the Mahi River where Gandhi attempted a crossing during the Dandi march but ended up being stuck in mud. March 2013. © Rena Effendi.
Manish aged 7 and his brother Anand aged 5 are playing with tires outside the salt flat in the Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat. 75% of India’s salt is produced in the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat. The salt sells at 240 rupees a ton and is sold to the government for processing and resale. It’s a national resource of India. Gujarat, India. March 2013. © Rena Effendi.
Gandhi discovered the soul of India by traveling on trains in low-cast compartments. This is where he came face to face with the country’s social divide. Payal (12 y.o.) is from untouchable family, she and her father boarded this Pratap Nagar narrow gauge inter-city train terminating in Jambusar. The latter stages of this train’s itinerary pass along the Salt Marsh route. March, 2013, Padra, Gujarat, India. © Rena Effendi.
Gandhi's passive resistance campaigns have inspired political movements all around India. These villagers, whose homes were flooded by the government dam project in Madya Pradesh have been practicing a non-violent civil disobedience campaign by standing in the water and demanding better court ruling on their land compensation. Madya Pradesh, India. October, 2013. © Rena Effendi.
Gandhi promoted Khadi, traditional dress made of handspun cotton. The Mahatma modeled his famous look after a simple farmer like the one here seen in Champaran district of Bihar. India. October 2013. © Rena Effendi.
© Rena Effendi.
Building of a silo still stands in Beirut port 10 months after the explosion. Most debris have been cleared and the port resumed its function, however the silo building remains to be hazardous and people are not allowed within 50 meters of it due to the risk of collapsing. Beirut, Lebanon June 2021. © Rena Effendi.
Roula and Jessy, mother and sister of firefighter Ralph Mellehe cry over his coffin draped in the Christian Lebanese Forces Party flag in a church during his funeral in Beirut. Ralph Mellehe was killed in the blast on August 4 after being dispatched to the port. Beirut, Lebanon, August 2020. © Rena Effendi.
Abdel Aziz Al Rasheed 12 yo and the one in the hoodie Hady Fowal 12 yo. Quote: “I should be in school but my parents can’t pay rent. We are hungry” - Abdel Aziz. A group of men and boys blocked the main highway leading into Tripoli and burned tires to protest economic deterioration. That same week Lebanese lira hit the historic low of 10,000 to a Dollar. At the same time, daily electricity cuts have increased, there is shortage of medication. Lebanon is experiencing deepest economic crisis since the end of the civil war. Tripoli March 3, 2021 Lebanon. © Rena Effendi.
Scenes of damage and destruction in an aristocratic home in Gemmaizah, the Sursock Palace, which was continuously inhabited since it was built in the 1870s. Rooms of the palace and all the objects blown to pieces, portraits of Roderick Sursock and his daughter Ariana amidst ruins of their home. This blast affected people across the socio economic lines. Roderick said: “I will not properly repair the house, until the political system changes in Lebanon”. Beirut, Lebanon. August 2020. © Rena Effendi.
In Batroun people sit on the seaside near the Phoenician ruins. March 7, 2021. Lebanon. © Rena Effendi.
People resting in the natural sea water pools of Rocca Marina beach in Chekka ( North of Lebanon ). 22, September, 2019 Lebanon. © Rena Effendi.
Rama, 9 years old is one of 8 children in her family of Palestinian refugees. She doesn’t go to school, lives in Shatila camp, where several generations of Palestinian refugees reside. The population of the camps has swollen to about 20,000 people now with a more recent wave of Syrian Palestinian refugees which came from Yarmouk camp and resettled in Sabra and Shatila in the past few years of the Syrian civil war. Lebanon. 23 September, 2019. © Rena Effendi.
My father's friend and protege Parkev Kazarian, an Armenian refugee from Baku, Azerbaijan lives in a small hut in a village near Gyumri in Armenia. For more than a decade before the war, he and my father were inseparable. My father taught Parkev how to collect and preserve butterflies.© Rena Effendi.
According to the local unit supervisor of the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action, it could take up to ten years to clear the landmines from all recaptured territories and make them safe again for people to return. “We simply don’t know yet which areas have landmines and which don’t. So we consider all lands to be dangerous here,” he said. © Rena Effendi.
Fatima and her family settled in a remote outpost of Paragacay in Ordubad region of Nakchivan. Paragacay, a hamlet of half a dozen shepherds homes used to be a mining town during the Soviet era, but later served as a military checkpoint on the way to the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Fatima's family sheltered me in their home as I kept returning to the village for three consecutive years in search of Satyrus effendi, a rare and critically endangered endemic butterfly named in honor of my father, late Soviet entomologist Rustam Effendi. Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. August 2023. © Rena Effendi.
Pavlik's taxidermy tools and butterfly spreading mounting board with moths on the table at his home. Tsagomark village, Gyumri, Armenia. August 2022. © Rena Effendi.
Location
Istanbul, Turkey
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Rena Effendi

Contributing Photographer

Rena Effendi is an award-winning documentary photographer and author of two monographs “Pipe Dreams: A Chronicle of Lives along the Pipeline” and “Liquid Land.” Her photography has been described as having a deep sense of empathy with a quiet celebration of the strength of the human spirit. She is the laureate of the Prince Claus Fund award and has been shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Pictet award in Photography and Sustainability. She spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos twice and is a member of its Cultural Leadership network. Effendi’s work has been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Saatchi Gallery, Istanbul Modern, Venice Biennial and NYC MOMA. Rena Effendi is a frequent contributor to the National Geographic Magazine and has worked on commissions for the New Yorker, Time, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Magazine, Monocle, The Sunday Times and many others. 

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