Announcing the Winner of the Photographer of the Week – Week 42, 2025

This image is part of a working series documenting the decline of the Great Salt Lake and the need to preserve it for future generations. A critical ecosystem and a vital part of Utah’s economy, it is now rapidly shrinking due to decades of water diversion, drought, and mismanagement. 2022 brought record low water levels and 2025 is on pace to fall even lower, driving the collapse of bird and brine shrimp populations, fueling toxic dust storms from the exposed lakebed, slashing annual snowfall totals because of reduced lake-effect, and threatening the businesses who contribute to the local economy. This series highlights both the beauty of the environment around the lake, as well as the demise of the industry and ecosystem which have relied, and still do rely, on the lake for their survival.