Artist
Kinga Wrona
Kinga Wrona (b. 1983) is a Polish documentary photographer currently living in Krakow. She is a student at the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava, Czech Republic. In her latest projects, Wrona explores the relationship between humans and nature in relation to climate change, natural disasters and environmental degradation. Her images have been published by FOTO Magazine, The Calvert Journal, National Geographic and New York Post, whilst her projects have been exhibited internationally. Her recent 85 project will soon be exhibited at Circulation(s) Festival in Paris, France.
85
When it comes to questions about how volcanoes work, practically everything is a mystery. Signals may appear before the eruption, but there is no certainty, and it’s almost impossible to determine the exact moment when an eruption will start. Volcanoes form the earth and create land for living. The Spanish island of La Palma only exists because of volcanic activity, which formed the archipelago of the Canary Islands long ago.
When I heard about the volcanic eruption on La Palma, it seemed so unusual and distant; I couldn’t believe it was happening on the same continent I live on. When I found out what happened to the people there, I was wondering why anyone would live on land that is a kind of bomb, threatening to explode at any moment. During my trip to La Palma, I saw something from a distance that looked spectacular – a natural phenomenon. In reality, it was a human tragedy.
The eruption of Cumbre Vieja lasted 85 days – the longest in the history of La Palma. Part of the island has been completely buried under lava and ash. Nature entered the lives of local residents so suddenly and unexpectedly. Even when living on a volcanic island, no one could ever be prepared for a natural disaster of this magnitude.
Marcin Kruk is a Polish photographer who has been documenting his life between Poland and Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Kruk is also a member of The Archive of Public Protests, created by a group of Polish photographers as a project of visual activism. The topics that Marcin explores prove that taking pictures is a socially important mission for him.
Lisa Bukreyeva comes from Kiev. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she had been documenting the lives of Ukrainian teenagers, but then the lives of these young people changed dramatically, and two of her more recent projects – Scars of Humanity and 2042 War Diary – document this change. So different from the images we are accustomed to seeing in the media, these two projects reveal the devastating experience of war.
Marysia Myanovska presents the pre-war experiences of Ukrainian youth. Recreating the story of his older brother through photographs, memories and stories, he takes us on a journey back in time to the 1990s – the first years after the collapse of the USSR. When talking about the past, Marysia avoids using archival materials or direct references to historical events and in this way, the project also becomes a poetic story about being lost, young and searching for one's place.
Ihar Hancharuk is a post-documentary photographer and visual artist from Belarus. Raised in an authoritarian country, Hancharuk is critical of phenomena and tools such as propaganda or upbringing in the cult of fighting and sacrifice for the homeland. He uses photography, video and digital archives to analyse the media message and its effects upon society.
Kinga Wrona is a documentary photographer from Poland. In his project 85 he shows the effects of the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma, Spain. The strength of this cycle is primarily its precision: there are just ten near-abstract photographs showing what can happen when ‘nature entered people's lives suddenly and unexpectedly’.