Darek Fortas - Coal Story
January 26th, 2012
posted by Dan
If you have yet to pay a visit to the Copper House Gallery which opened last September then the exhibition currently on display is the perfect excuse to do so. In these doom and gloom times it’s fantastic to see that quality spaces are still setting up shop in the city offering a platform for the most burgeoning artists. One such bright young thing is Polish native Darek Fortas. Graduate of DIT and winner of the 2011 Fire Propeller Competition he has been making some serious waves in the photography world of late.
The opening of his exhibition was teeming with people on the 11th of January with the likes of John Duncan, editor of Source Magazine and guest speaker Anthony Haughey making appearances. Fortas’ father was a miner and this perhaps acted as an early impetus to explore the subject in detail. The fruit of his creative endeavors culminated in this project entitled Coal Story, a social documentary project focusing on the largest coal mine companies in the European Union located in the most industrialized part of Poland known as Silesia. According to the artist “the 1960’s was a period when Poland experienced significant economic and industrial expansion. This resulted in migrant workers moving from rural and non-industrialised regions of the country in search of work and a better life. In the early 1980s, the the coal mines were a major site of struggle and resistance against the communist regime. Workers’ protests resulted in the creation of Solidarity a movement under that eventually led to the collapse of the communist regime and the end of the Cold War.”
Perhaps the most interesting facet of the exhibition is that Fortas’ documentary work is combined with archival research dating back to the 1960s. This affords a further dimension to an already fertile concept and italicizes the rich history which supports the whole project. So while confronted with these worker’s living reality we are prompted to consider what came before. It also adds variety to the viewing experience with visitors being able to offset appreciating wall hung images with the more tactile experience of examining an array of prints to be found scattered on a table (however tempting that might be to the kleptomaniacs among us!)
A deep sense of history and humanity are all-pervading in this project. Impressive portraits are balanced by images of small details plucked from the minutiae of the worker’s lives which are amplified and decontextualised by the lens. What the project essentially does is pique an interest in the lives of the subjects and is that not a central goal of social documentary? But while adhering to documentary photography norms there is something strikingly picturesque about the photographer’s still life shots. Fortas seems to be straddling two genres and quite successfully we might add.
We highly recommend scooting on down to check out Coal Story which will be running until February 3rd.
Words: Sarah Allen.
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