The Powers of the Dead Sea

“I've always been fascinated by extreme environments,” the photographer Vittoria Mentasti told me recently of her ongoing exploration of the Dead Sea and its surrounding deserts. Last week, we asked Mentasti to take us along, via Instagram, as she drove, climbed, and camped her way through the Judean desert to learn more about the spiritual and healing properties of the region’s baths and springs. In addition to capturing close-ups of mineral springs, Mentasti turned her camera on the people who come to the Dead Sea for rejuvenation, and to treat a wide range of health conditions. Mentasti told me that the allure of the Dead Sea is in showing us that “our bodies and the environment are profoundly interconnected in ways we are only beginning to understand.”