In the coastal regions of Bangladesh, much of the country’s sea salt is still processed through labor-intensive traditional methods. After crystallizing in shallow evaporation fields under the dry-season sun, raw salt is transported to small washing facilities where workers clean and refine it by hand.

Inside these humid workshops, salt is rinsed repeatedly with water to remove sand, mud, and other impurities. Men stand barefoot in brine for hours, lifting, stirring, carrying, and washing heavy masses of salt in a continuous cycle of physical labor. Bamboo baskets, buckets, and hand-built basins remain essential tools in a process that has changed little over generations.

Photographed in and around Chittagong, Bangladesh.