The Central Valley, Part One: Dry Despair

California’s Central Valley, the powerhouse of the state’s agriculture industry, is now under assault from the drought. We take a look at the region from two perspectives, starting with a dark picture of fallow crops and poverty. Photographer Matt Black has documented the troubles of the Central Valley in stark black and white images that have appeared in many magazines, including the New Yorker. Black was also chosen as TIME magazine’s “Instagram photographer of the year” last year. We talk to Black, who grew up and still lives in the Central Valley, about how it’s changed since he first started photographing it two decades ago.