Michał CAŁA (ur. 1948)

Slag Heaps I, Czerwionka 1978 from the Silesia 1978-1992 series

1978/1994
gelatin silver print, 37.8 x 25 cm,
signed, dated and titled on the reverse

In his Silesia 1978-1992 series, the artist depicts the industrial scenery of worker`s housing estates in Upper Silesia and their residents during the final period of the Communist rule in Poland.
Awards: the series won a gold medal and honorary mention at the Meetings with Photography Festival in Jastrzębie Zdrój, 1978. The photograph presented here won the 3rd prize at the Pentacon-Orwo Fotowettbewerb, Dresden, German Democratic Republic (1979) and the ‘GrandPrize` of the Minister of Culture and Art during the 6th Biennial of Polish Landscape Art in Kielce (1979).
Other prints of the same photograph are in the collections of the Silesian Museum in Katowice, Silesian Library in Katowice, Upper Silesia Museum in Bytom, Municipal Office in Duisburg (Germany).
The photograph has been widely exhibited in Poland and abroad.
Publications: Silesia (Baturo, 1996); Silesia (Galeria Zderzak, 2006), Silesia and Galicia (Museum of the History of Photography, 2015), Masters of Polish Landscape. A Photographic Almanac (Fine Grain, 2000).