“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.”
Amy Connors is a member of The New Yorker’s photo department.
Goings On
What we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week, online, in N.Y.C., and beyond. Paid subscribers also receive book picks.
Personal History
Catching the Fire Bug
I set out to fight fires—then discovered that I loved them.
By M. R. O’Connor
Books
Briefly Noted Book Reviews
“Ashoka,” “Pax Economica,” “Here in Avalon,” and “Bitter Water Opera.”
This Week in Fiction
Joseph O’Neill on Overwhelming Wonder
The author discusses his story “The Time Being.”
By Willing Davidson
Daily Comment
Why Is the Sea So Hot?
A startling rise in sea-surface temperatures suggests that we may not understand how fast the climate is changing.
By Elizabeth Kolbert