ART Basement
“Miners. Galicia”
Photo research by Anna Rytsar and Roman Semen
Few people in Ukraine know that miners are found not only in the East of Ukraine. Coal is also mined in Volyn and in the Lviv region. Photographers Anna Rytsar and Roman Semen decided to find out what it is like to be a Galician miner.
Anna Rytsar: “We started shooting at three mines in Chervonohrad (Lviv region), but quickly became convinced that technologically all mines operate more or less the same way, and people everywhere are equally welcoming and open to communication. So due to a lack of time and finances, we settled on the mine closest to us, No. 4 ‘Vidrodzhennia,’ for more detailed shooting (because we had to travel there almost every week, and for a full working day).
Ordinary people with a lifestyle traditional for Galicia work here: they go to work at the mine according to their shifts, after work they take care of family and household matters, and have the same ordinary hobbies, preferences, concerns, and problems as residents of Lviv, Lutsk, or any other city in Western Ukraine. There are also talented people among them who have turned their hobby into a ‘second job’: they work alone or with their families in ceramics, wood, painting, and even in creating modern acoustics in churches. In short, people are just people. Almost always smiling, very hospitable, open, and friendly, who, even despite the coal dust and dirt, try to keep everything clean and surrounded by living flowers (wherever production allows, there are flowerpots with flowers, and there are also gardens and flower beds on the mine grounds).”