Leonard Reyes Photographer

Met this fisherman earlier that morning and I saw that he came back empty handed, no fish from his traps laid out the night before. I called a friend to translate if he could take me around the Mekong to photograph other fishers. A small sum was agreed upon, and we headed out not long after. He is one of a few fishers still trying to make a livelihood from the Mekong river, in Thadeua Village, upstream from Laos’ Xayaburi Dam—the first mainstream Mekong hydropower project (operational 2019). Fishing communities are adapting to altered fish migration and changing river flows that have reshaped traditional livelihoods in the region.