invited guest: Arkadiusz Gola - Men of Coal
Arkadiusz Gola was born and grew up in very heart of industrial Upper Silesia. Since his early years he was surrounded by specific atmosphere of this land where almost everybody worked for coal mine, cityscapes where formed by coal mine shafts, air crossed by conveyor bridges. He started his photographic life in coal mine Nowy Wirek in Ruda Śląska – when as 12 yo boy went to Photo Club – the mines where not just giving the work for people – mines were giving almost everything to people working there and their families. For generations miners and mines built fascinating world basing on simple values as honor, truth, bravery and respect to others. This is natural that he, as adult photographer wants to talk about this land and its people, especially that this world is passing away day by day. Mines stopped to be “salt of this land”, new economy orders to shut them down and former miners are loosing not just jobs but all of this what for hundreds years was built here by their grandfathers…
Arkadiusz Gola tries to witness and document disappearing world and he makes it following the rules of miners – truth, honor and respect are most important in his documents, I am honored to present piece of his work on F blog.
Arkadiusz Gola (1972). Journalist of “Dziennik Zachodni” (major daily newspaper in Upper Silesia). Studying photography in ITF /Instytut Tvurci Fotografie/ - Opava, Czech Republic. Awarded by many photographic proces, winner of Polish Press Photo 1998 and 2003, journalist of the year 2003.
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