Look, Listen, Learn — Join the Flak Photo Network »
Video by Rafal Milach
The first thing you notice by the sea is the concrete. Kilometers of grey blocks sometimes painted with blue and yellow, the national colors of Ukraine. You can feel the soviet past at once. It looks surreal and it doesn’t match the beautiful landscape that surrounds you. Industrial zones and the iron waste by the sea don’t remind harmonic idyll between nature and man. People have changed the landscape in a very brutal way here. But the sea fights back for its natural shape and territory. Local people seem to respect the power of the sea. Nevertheless at he same time they thoughtlessly devastate it. This wired symbiosis makes this piece of land fascinating. I went to the Ukrainian Black Sea coast to explore this mutual influence and relation between the man and sea. Ukraine is the country in transition and for the last few years has been looking for its new identity. In my opinion so has the Black Sea coast. — Rafal Milach
Rafal Milach is a documentary photographer based in Warsaw, Poland. He graduated from Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland and ITF in Opava, Czech Republic. For more than 10 years he has been working on transition issues in Russian speaking countries and CEE region. This work resulted with the book 7 Rooms (Kehrer Verlag 2011) and such essays as The Grey (2002), Wunderland (2006), Disappearing Circus (2008) or Black Sea of Concrete (2009). Rafal’s photos were exhibited in MoCA Shanghai and are the part of collection of Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Art in Japan. They have been also presented within Photoespana, Look3, Rencontres Photogrphiques d’Arles. In 2007 Rafal took part in Joop Swart Masterclass run by World Press Photo Foundation. He is grant recipient from Polish Ministry of Culture, European Cultural Foundaion and Visegrad Fund. His Pictures have been awarded in World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International, Photography Book Now and New York Photo Festival Awards.
Posted on Sunday, May 1, 2011.
Flak Photo is an online photography channel that presents the work of artists, curators, bookmakers and photo organizations to a global audience of people who are passionate about visual culture. Interested in contributing? Click here to learn more »
A Life Alone
Video by Maisie Crow
This Must Be the Place: COFFER
Video by Lost & Found Films
At the Hour of Our Death
Video by Mark & Angela Walley, Photographs by Sarah Sudhoff
Raised to Hunt
Video by Brian Lesteberg
Are you promoting a photography project? Share it with Flak Photo's global audience by placing a graphic advertisement in this space. For details about banner ads, media partnerships or other inquiries, contact editor Andy Adams »
Comments + Reactions for this Post