Michał CAŁA (ur. 1948)

Housing Estate at Victoria I Power Plant. Wałbrzych 1979 from the Silesia 1975-1992 series

1979/1980
gelatin silver print, 59.3 × 40.7 cm,
signed "Michał Cała", dated, titled, artist stamp and inscription "Michał Cała / «Wałbrzych» / silver gelatine vintage" on the reverse
vintage

This photograph comes from one of Cała’s best-known series, which he worked on for nearly two decades during the final phase of communism in Poland. He documented the changing industrial landscape, workers’ housing developments, and their residents in the region of Upper Silesia and Wałbrzych.
Awards: Photo Confrontations Jarosław ‘79; Photo Confrontations Świdnica ’80; Ifo-scanbaltic, XIV. Internationale Fotoschau der Ostseelander, Norwegens und Islands (1980); Pilsner International Photography Awards, Los Angeles (2007).
Monographs: Silesia (Baturo, 1995), Silesia (Zderzak Gallery, 2006), Silesia and Galicia (Museum of the History of Photography, Cracow 2015).
Major exhibitions: Silesia, Katowice Gallery, Katowice (1984), Stara Galeria ZPAF, Warsaw (1986), ZPAF Gallery, Cracow (1986); Silesia, Fotogalerie Objektief, The Netherlands (2012); Silesia and Galicia, Museum of the History of Photography, Cracow (2016).