Agnieszka Kowal

I grew up in Nikiszowiec, the old miners' settlement that most people now only see in photographs of its red-brick courtyards, and I still live a few streets from where I was born. My sessions usually start there before moving to Giszowiec nearby, since together they show how one coal company built entire communities for its workers rather than just housing. I explain what daily life looked like in these settlements and how they survived being nearly demolished decades ago. Guiding on video suits this material well, since the courtyards themselves do most of the explaining once the camera holds still long enough.