M. Mahendra Reddy committed suicide. It was one in a spate of suicides in Andhra Pradesh.

Surya Sen works at the Centre for Science and Environment, in Delhi. He's a photographer for Down to Earth, a science and environment fortnightly published by CSE. His striking, somewhat eerie images from Andhra Pradesh have won him well-deserved accolades recently.

“Apart from portraits, there are also images which depict the distribution and sale of seeds, which of course is the costliest input in agriculture and the primary reason forcing farmers to take on more debt.”

Unable to pay this mounting debt, farmers have taken their lives. What is shocking is how pervasive this practice is in one state of India.

Tiffinbox presents Surya's work here – one image per day, over the course of the next ten days. Please come back and visit. We'll be adding captions soon so that you better understand the situation.

Adithya Sambamurthy says:

I was a college senior when I first saw the book Divided Soul, by Magnum's David Alan Harvey, who gave a presentation on his work at thePoynter Institute in St. Petersburg. Back then the images were incredible, but I must confess I wasn't quite sure I understood it. I didn't know why the book was put together the way it was. The instant recognition of the theme was not there to me in the images. So it was a treat to have the opportunity to hear the author come and speak- and show some amazing images. Harvey considers himself a hybrid between the realms of photojournalism and fine art photography, and a number of his images have appeared on the pages of National Geographic as well as on the walls of Fine Art museums.

Harvey explained how he is able to ‘sell' his images to editors, by researching his subjects thoroughly and giving images, which on the surface seem very graphic, the context they need for the story through well written captions.

“Know more about the subject than everyone else in the room,” he said. In researching his book, Divided Soul, Harvey said he was as influenced as much by the fiction coming from Spain and the Americas as he was by newspaper articles. He attributes what he referred to as the lyrical quality of his images to this influence by fiction.

Via Brian Utley

50 States, 50 Photogs. Sweet collection!

Is this just narcissism?

Heather Champ's Tiny Photographers. Champ's images remind me a bit of David Levinthal‘s monumental portfolios.

The effective use of a macro lens, shallow depth of field, punchy colors and a story line created wholly by the audience is simply refreshing.