In debt incapable of providing for themselves or for the needs of their families more than 200 000 farmers killed themselves in India in the last 10 years.
An ancient Hindu text say that the soul of a person that killed himself wander on earth until the time that was allotted to him comes up naturally. It is to give homage to these souls that are still around that Laura El-Tantawy created I’ll Die for You.
I’ll die for you explores the relationship between these men that were fed by the earth and than were killed by it. Their disappearance bringing death to the earth in return. The Artist encrusted vegetal elements such as leafs, twigs in the old fashionned studio portraits.
She made a rhythm for her series with other details sometime vegetal ,leaf rib, meandering of the bark of trees or human with hairs and details of skin.
Laura El-Tantawy is an egyptian photographer born in 1980 in England between 2005-2009 she worked in Egypt on a personal project on the changes of the society. Her work has been published world wide.
Sybile Girault
I’ll Die for you : Suicide in rural India
Laura El- Tantawy
