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TO ASHES PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROCCO RORANDELLI
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TO ASHES BEHIND THE SCENES OF INDIA’S TOBACCO INDUSTRY
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROCCO RORANDELLI
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eginning in 1910, the German photographer and anthropologist August Sander took thousands of portraits of his compatriots as part of a series titled Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts—People of the Twentieth Century. Sander strove to create a sort of composite document of the society he lived in, and classified the portraits under seven categories: The Farmer, The Skilled Tradesman, Woman, Classes and Professions, The Artists, The City, and The Last People (a variety of outcasts and vagabonds). After decades of work, he was interrupted by the Second World War, after which he largely gave up on photography. Though parts of the series were published, Sander never considered the project complete. Sander’s simple documentary approach, of capturing people at work, in their own environments, serves as inspiration for the Italian photographer Rocco Rorandelli. Rorandelli lost his father, a heavy smoker, to cancer in 2007, and began to wonder if he could emulate the German’s style to take a close look at the tobacco industry. At the end of 2009, Rorandelli travelled to India, which is the world’s second-largest producer, and consumer, of tobacco. Travelling through Karnataka, he chronicled the many arms of the industry: the fields, the facilities where the plant is processed, a research centre working to improve the crop, and much else. At each stage, he focused less on the processes and more on the people involved, including farmers, truck drivers, tasters, wholesalers, shopkeepers and consumers. Rorandelli found tobacco to be a mean plant, as unkind to its consumers as to many of those who prepare it for them. Tobacco rapidly depletes the soil it grows in, and is often planted alongside other crops, such as sorghum, that help replenish fields and reduce farmers’ economic dependency on the crop. Much of India’s tobacco goes to making bidis—a large but badly regulated industry, where workers are prevented from unionising, and endure brutal hours and unsafe conditions in return for paltry wages. But despite this, farming and processing tobacco offers vital employment to entire communities. “I don’t want to condemn an economic sector,” Rorandelli said. “I want people to be aware about the repercussions of their actions.” The public should know, he said, that smoking “has a series of impacts on the environment and on the lives of millions of people employed in this sector.” With their direct composition and unfussy style, Rorandelli’s photographs reflect this non-judgemental but critical attitude, while capturing the harsh truths hidden behind the flash and glamour of the tobacco industry’s marketing campaigns.
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above: A labourer in Nipani, in Karnataka’s Belgaum district, harvests tobacco. The plant is harvested in January and February each year. right: After the harvesting, tobacco is laid out to dry before being transferred to threshing plants, where it is prepared for the production of bidis. opposite page: Dipali Lohar, a farmer, during the harvesting season. To maintain soil balance, fields are planted with both tobacco and sorghum. opening image: A farmer with first-grade tobacco leaves. Tobacco is generally graded based on qualities such as appearance, sweetness and aroma, and consistency in burning.
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above: Women transport sacks of tobacco to a processing plant in Akkol village, in Belgaum district. opposite page: The Apparamadhange family dries tobacco in front of their home in Akkol. The family owns five acres of land in the village, on which they have been planting tobacco for the last 18 years. They also began cultivating sugarcane on some additional land about nine years ago.
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above: A guard at an office of the Tobacco Board, the government body that controls the tobacco industry in India, in Periyapatna, in Karnataka’s Mysore district. Such guards are typically paid around S3,000 a month. right: P Jayarama (centre), a superintendent of the Tobacco Board, in discussions with farmers on the auction floor in Periyapatna. All licensed tobacco farmers can participate in auctions.
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above: The auction floor in Periyapatna. In this region, the Indian conglomerate ITC usually purchases around half of the auctioned tobacco, while the rest is sold to other big buyers such as Japan Tobacco International. right: A man hauls sacks of tobacco inside the processing plant at Akkol. Although the air is saturated with tobacco dust, making it difficult to breathe, workers do not wear any protective gear.
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above: Shah Chhanganlal Ugarchand is one of the largest tobacco commission agents in Nipani. Agents buy tobacco from landowners and sell it on to bidi manufacturers. opposite page: The seed bank of the Central Tobacco Research Institute, in Hunsur, Karnataka. The research here involves improving tobacco quality, and identifying alternative crops that can generate sustainable incomes for labourers and farmers.
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Inside the Akkol plant, where tobacco leaves, after being dried and graded, are cut into pieces ready to be rolled into the final product—bidis.
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