In the month of May from 2nd to 26th photo gallery “Objektief” has pleasure to present the works of Polish photographer Michal Cala, member of the Union of Polish Artists Photographers (ZPAF) from 1983. Michal by education the engineer of aviation, finished Technical University in Warsaw and after study moved to Upper Silesia where he dedicated himself to photograph the industrial landscapes. What we will see in the gallery dated to in the years 1975 – 92. The photographs are a part of the larger series called “Silesia”. His fascination with this subject started when he first saw industrial centres of Upper and Lower Silesia. The landscape there was terrifying and beautiful at the same time.
It did not change for the whole period since the XIX century to the end of communism in Poland. He was particularly interested in labourers' housing districts, the old ironworks, coal-mines and enormous coal heaps. Cala was also taking pictures of the people, who lived in that environment. The reality that is shown in his photographs does not exist any longer. Most of the heaps, old coal-mines and factories suffered a demolition.
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Michal in his photographs is trying to combine documentary and aesthetic values. The technique, which he used, was traditional analogue black and white photography. Nothing is strange, that his works are held by Silesian Museum in Katowice, Museum of Upper Silesia in Bytom, and also by Duisburg town hall in The Ruhr Area.
In 2007 Michal Cala was invited to take part in the exhibition presenting photographs of 100 most important Polish photographers in the XX century “Polish Photography in 20th Century”. In the same year he presented his series “Silesia” at 2nd Foto Festival Mannheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg. He also won first place in Pilsner International Photo Awards 2007, category 'Industrial'. In the same year British Foto8 magazine and British Journal of Photography published articles about the author and his photographs. In 2008 he took part in the project “Behind Wall” at the Noorderlicht Photo Festival. His photographs were published in albums “The Anthology of Polish Photography 1839-1989”, “Masters of Polish Landscape” and “Polish Photography in 20th Century”. |
