honorable mention
Krzysztof Szramek united kingdom
title
Late Days
Upper Silesia is a region located in the south of Poland that has been heavily industrialized since the late 18th century. In recent decades, the activity and existence of foundries, smelting plants, coal mines, factories, and their infrastructure have started to decline. During my multiple visits to Upper Silesia, I explored areas around the sites of various former industrial activities. Bearing in mind the fact that all these places might change or disappear completely in the near future, I decided to capture the fading landscapes that I found there.
To accentuate the pensive atmosphere that I experienced in these places and to seamlessly show their hidden beauty, I depicted them in muted morning and evening light. The partly demolished and partly overgrown ironworks or rundown industrial workers' family houses express, through their scale, a sense of significance from the past and portray man's creative ability and its inevitable obsolescence over time.
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entry description
These five images are part of 'Late Days', a series of sixteen photographs taken between March 2021 and October 2022, during all seasons, using a medium format film camera in the industrial areas surrounding Upper Silesian cities.Upper Silesia is a region located in the south of Poland that has been heavily industrialized since the late 18th century. In recent decades, the activity and existence of foundries, smelting plants, coal mines, factories, and their infrastructure have started to decline. During my multiple visits to Upper Silesia, I explored areas around the sites of various former industrial activities. Bearing in mind the fact that all these places might change or disappear completely in the near future, I decided to capture the fading landscapes that I found there.
To accentuate the pensive atmosphere that I experienced in these places and to seamlessly show their hidden beauty, I depicted them in muted morning and evening light. The partly demolished and partly overgrown ironworks or rundown industrial workers' family houses express, through their scale, a sense of significance from the past and portray man's creative ability and its inevitable obsolescence over time.
about the photographer
Krzysztof Szramek (born 1980) is a self-taught landscape photographer based in Southampton, UK. Krzysztof focuses on capturing the transitional nature of man-made landscapes, aiming to create images that evoke a sense of stillness and peace. He uses unique editing techniques that give his photographs a painting-like quality.back to gallery