With increasing fears of global warming in recent years, the world is trying to get rid of fossil fuels and move to renewable sources. The European Union aims to be a leader in this transition to green energy and to stop using coal in the next two decades. The situation in Bulgaria, which is rich in coal deposits, albeit of low quality, is that there is no clear vision for the future of this industry and politicians are trying to delay the transition and compensate for the coal companies, not the people in the affected areas.
“The Last Days” is an ongoing project that aims to show how the coal industry reflects on the lives of affected communities. Some of the problems that people have are air pollution, soil and water contamination, burning of RDF and other trash as fuel both from local sources and imported from abroad, eviction of whole villages due to the expansion of open coal mines and the lack of another income and fear for the future in a part of the regions.
Through a series of portraits and landscapes and interior photographs, the author wants to show what is happening around the coal industry and to raise awareness and draw public interest in the fate of these people.