You Can Flood Me, I’ll Be Here

András Zoltai

 2020-2021 – The Island of Majuli, Assam, India

About this series

Majuli is the largest river island in the world, located on the majestic Brahmaputra River that winds through the state of Assam in Northeast India. The history of the island and identity of people living there have been defined for centuries by the flooding presence of the river that actively shapes not only its territory, but fates. Their homes, safety of their families, crops and fished food, in fact, their simple existence, are all subject to the constant changes of the river and its environment. People have learned to live in balance and adapt to change over time. It has been accepted that the river is always lost or given. However, global environmental changes of our time have upset the balance: in the last few decades the island area has shrunk by a third due to increasing soil erosion forcing thousands of families to flee their homes, monsoons are no longer arriving at the usual time (or not at all), water pollution is increasing and floods have become more unpredictable.
‘You can flood me, I’ll be here’ is an exploration of my encounter with a sensitive, harmonious, yet defenceless relationship of people with nature and water on the island of Majuli. My motivation is to photograph the issues of isolation in physical, social, and spiritual sense, and focusing on how people react to the river and interact with the ever-changing environment.

Photographer: András Zoltai
Nationality: Hungarian
Based in: Budapest, Hungary
Website: zoltaiandras.com
Instagram: @andras.zoltai

András was born in southeast Hungary [1990]. He is a freelance documentary photographer currently based in Budapest. He studied Photojournalism at the Academy of National Association of Hungarian Journalists. His curiosity, travels and openness laid the foundation for his world of photography. He seeks to get personally involved in his subjects. He focuses on human identity, social and environmental topics, and strongly believes in interpreting his own human experience through photography. András is a self–made artist whose approach combines journalistic and conceptual practices.