I’LL DIE FOR YOU (India, 2010)
Over the past decade an alarming trend has come to light in India: more than 200,000 farmers have committed suicide. Many had borrowed money to plant more efficient crops, but could not pay off their debts. Because of the extremely fast transition India has undergone, from a rural to an indus-trial, urban society with an open market, farmers have been confronted by immense problems. The photographer Laura El-Tantawy has no desire to go into the causes, but in her eerie images places emphasises on the bond between the people and the land. This connection is symbolically reflected in the texture of the skin of the people she portrays. The land and its inhabitants are one and the same, she says. When the one dies, so does the other.