Heavy industry in Upper Silesia has left a lasting legacy in the form of a degraded environment. The land, stripped of vegetation and the polluted air, has had a huge impact on the functioning of the organisms living here. After more than 200 years of domination by mines, coal energy is beginning to give way to wind energy. Over the last eight years, the share of energy obtained from coal in Poland has fallen from 87% to 63%, while the share of energy obtained from wind has increased from 3% to 11%. “Gusts of wind” is a series of self-portraits in which I juxtapose myself against the background of the energy transition in the southern part of the Silesian Voivodship. I become a witness to two worlds coming into contact with each other. On the one hand, coal mines and the heavy smoke they produce; on the other, farmland, where more windmills are being built at a rapid pace.

by Michał Konrad

Author bio:

Michał Konrad (actually Michał Smuda) was born in 1983 in Wodzisław Śląski. Student of the Institute of Creative Photography at the Silesian University in Opava. Member of the Union of Polish Art Photographers in Katowice. In 2020, he won 1st place in the Tokyo International Photo Award competition in the People category. His photographs have been presented at many solo exhibitions and photography festivals. He has presented his photographs in Rybnik, Łódź, Opole, Bielsko-Biała, Warsaw, Jelenia Góra, Ostrava, Bratislava and Prague. In 2021, he was the winner of the prestigious competition “Show Yourself”, held as part of the Opole Festival of Photography.

Link to project:

https://michalkonrad.pl/porywy-wiatru/