The Home, the Field and the Flux

Historically, cotton was inseparable from Uzbekistan and it is one of the most important narratives of the country. People have been figuring out ways to bring water even to the driest parts of the steppe for centuries. Later, the Russian Empire, and then the USSR, implemented irrigation projects to capitalize on cotton, which led to an ecological disaster — the shrinking of the Aral Sea, the only sea we had. Today, workers massively migrate across the country to rent fields as independent seasonal farmers growing food, while others are employed in cotton picking by giant businesses close to the government.

I look at two agricultural systems that organize movement differently: seasonal food farming on rented land and industrial cotton production. I observe and document these agricultural practices in Uzbekistan.

I follow how each year farmers migrate to cultivate rented land in the Farish region, constructing temporary settlements that function as villages for eight months at a time, from February till September. These cyclical migrations form a recurring social architecture: communities assembled around labor, then dismantled.

After I am done in Farish, I move to the cotton fields. The harvest takes place in September and October across the country, drawing people into another seasonal migration. Some people work near their homes; others travel long distances, including to the capital, forming temporary communities. Moving between regions becomes my own yearly cycle — returning to the fields, meeting my old acquaintances, tracing the repetition of gestures and routines that define the harvest.