The United Soya Republic presents a journey through the heartlands of the Southern Cone’s agribusiness; it is a portrayal of the changes to the landscape and socio-economic tissue brought about by intensive farming and the exportation of produce in Argentina and Paraguay.

Jordi Ruiz Cirera has spent three years traveling through South America to give soy and the uncharismatic workings of agriculture a face. The consequences of growing and farming soy are something which this artist has sensitively recorded throughout this series. Working closely with the farmers, labourers, landowners and their families he has been able to see up close how the pesticides, the deforestation and migration of farmers has impacted these communities.

Jordi Ruiz Cirera (b. Barcelona 1984) is an award winning documentary photographer from Barcelona. Currently based in London he combines personal long-term projects with editorial, NGO and corporate assignments for a broad range of international clients.

In recent years his work has been internationally exhibited and awarded, including recipent of the Magnum Emergency Fund Grant, the Deutsche Bank Award for Photography, the AOP Student Photographer of the Year, the POYi, the Lucie Awards, or the Taylor-Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London. In 2014 he published his first monograph, Los Menonos, with independent publishing house Editions du LIC. He holds a degree in Design, and an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from the London College of Communication.