Shutter Stories: A Canon Podcast on Photography, Filmmaking and Print

In conversation with Daniel Etter

April 02, 2020 Canon Europe / Daniel Etter Season 1 Episode 7
Shutter Stories: A Canon Podcast on Photography, Filmmaking and Print
In conversation with Daniel Etter
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, Shutter Stories talks with photojournalist Daniel Etter about his experience in one of the - in his own words - "archaic" coal mines of Romania. In 2018 he visited one such mine to take photos with the then brand new Canon EOS R. Here, he tells us about the state of the mines as he found them, the difficulties of taking photographs in such dark conditions and the importance of documenting such places. 

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spk_0:   0:00
photography has evolved from being a way of documenting the world a way of communicating. I would say there's always too many photographs in the world that there's never too many good ones, but you've got something in the way you light. Something should be as beautiful as you can make it business. Creative kit on Careers Find out about the world's leading photographers and film makers in shutter storeys. In this week's episode, we're talking with Pulitzer Prize winning photo journalist Daniel Etter. Daniels worked all around the world, documenting everything from war zones and refugee crises to you, the traditions of Italian circuses. In 2018 he travelled to Romania to document the lives of coalminers in a trip that presented him with some of the toughest shooting conditions of his career. Hi, Danielle, Thanks for talking to us today. So can you take us right back to the beginning? Tell us how you first got started in photography.

spk_1:   0:53
So when I started photography I was using I was doing sports photography. Mostly, I was in the early two thousands, and I was using film cameras, also six by six, with a lot off like equipment with lights and they were saying on DH around the mid arts. I got my first digital camera, which was Kanan 20 I think

spk_0:   1:19
so. What is your day job generally involved in? What is it that year they're looking for in your cameras? Most

spk_1:   1:25
of the time, I'm shooting news on documentary photography. So means I travel a lot. I shoot events that can't be repeated that, like haven't just in front of me on DH. I tried to be there and record things as they're happening. So the most important thing for for me is to have a camera that's absolutely reliable and, you know, takes a photo when I wanted to take a photo. And like even under really adverse convict condition, it just keeps on working.

spk_0:   1:58
What do you usually shoot with

spk_1:   1:59
for my work? Most of the time, I use a cannon five t mark for So it's a good balance off size and robustness and realise, like I mean, most of the cameras are really reliable, but it's something that has sealed that isthe, you know, it doesn't matter if it gets a bit wet on DH. Doesn't matter if it's really dusty. Keeps working at the same time, it's not too big and not too heavy.

spk_0:   2:27
So we're going to be talking about your trip to the Romanian minds in a moment which was obviously an exceptionally dark environment. But generally speaking, how much you working in low light? I'm

spk_1:   2:39
actually working quite a lot on the light. I think all of the image of most of the images that had an impact in my career that were important in my career. Most of the images I really like most of the images I'm attached to were taken in the early morning hours or in the afternoon in the late or early early night. Um, so I'd say like I can't what numbers to it But I think a good portion of my workers in low light. It gives you a very different pellet to play with, I think, and I was like and it's something during the day. Everything is like states the same. Basically, you you have one source of light on DH. It's what you're used to seeing, and it's what we always seeing. But it doesn't change, and at night you have, like different sources of light and like natural light just moving in there and artificial lights you can play with. I wouldn't call it a game, but like it's yeah, it's You have more variety to choose from and more things to play with

spk_0:   3:59
to tell us about the coal mines. What drew you to the project?

spk_1:   4:02
What fascinated me about the coal mine sister, a relic off ofthe past which doesn't exist anymore. It's special, basically left over from from communism that still reaches into present day on Bit's changing at the moment. So there's this region where was photographing was probably one of the most Mona industrial areas and in all of Europe, at least 80% off. The people who worked there worked in coal mines. So there's like a dramatic shift happening with these mines closing. And when you go there, when you see this place, you know it doesn't look like it's still working, and it looks like it was abandoned 2030 40 years ago. It is crumbling. It is, You know, there's like abandoned Lorries lying around, mangled up steel pipes and beams. And yet still, there's like people, people working there underground in a place that you don't really expect Teo exist in Europe anymore on DH. And of course, Cole is something not only in this place, but overall in the world is something that is relic from the past and currently face out all over the world. So it has a political dimension as well, because when you look at the U. S. On DH, especially the yes, something very political and something people connect with the good old good old times. But in reality, it's extremely hard job on DH conditions you wouldn't imagine to exist anymore. Um, anywhere in Europe.

spk_0:   5:50
So what were the realities like compared to what you expected to find there?

spk_1:   5:54
So when I went there before I went there before any idea of how it looks I was expecting something less a kike, basically, and something that is a bit more modern and really you know, you you going there for a good hour through like absolute darkness. The only light you have is the hat lamp on your hat, and the further you go in the narrow right gets, sometimes you have to crawl on all fours to to get further in, and then you have these belts running right next to you that get the coal out and you have to like to squeeze along them. So it's a really intimidating place, and it's really claustrophobic like then suddenly you get at the end where people are working and you know it's not only extracting the cold, but it's like and four saying the shafts all the time, putting the belts for So that's like enormous amount of labour that goes into getting this coal out. So and it obviously only works when when you have when you have people willing to work for for very little money when they have no other economic opportunities.

spk_0:   7:09
I mean, it's quite ambitious that you were wanting to photograph in a coal mine. I can't imagine that there was, like, any light at all. So how difficult were the conditions for photography?

spk_1:   7:20
Even for me, these were like the most difficult conditions I've ever photographed in because everything is changing all the time on DH. I think for most people it's like an environment you never you never shoot. And he never working just like, really can't find an example that you come can compare it with, even if you're shooting like in a really low light conditions. There's always, you know, something constant most of the time, some constant source of light, something you can plan with you Khun work with. You know where it's going to be on how it's gonna look and butt down there is just like changing all the time. It was really challenging and really difficult for me to work there.

spk_0:   8:07
What were you hoping to capture down there?

spk_1:   8:09
The work down there is much more labour than the mechanised, which I didn't expect. I expected it to be to be more mechanised to beam or automated. But it's really just like hard labour as people working with pick axes and like jackhammers on DH carrying around these like big steel pillars that are filled with water that way more than like 100 kilos es Oh, really, really, really tough work. So I was hoping to show just that, like how how labour intensive it is and how hard it is to work down there.

spk_0:   8:50
You also took some portrait of the miners as well as in the mines themselves. How did you approach that?

spk_1:   8:56
You know when people, when miners get out after shift of work there. The faces are black. You know that flick coal under the eyes to have like Colin all the pores. And this is obviously something that is very visual, and it's like a good way to to show on which conditions they're working to solve. I did a few portrait's afterwards off these coal miners. You know, in most jobs you don't really see how people work, but in this case it's like, very clear from the way they look. Their jobs are in their faces. They're like, almost like a direct representation of what they do. You know, the door to grid the charge exhaustion that is really in the face is so focusing on their faces. But at the same time that plays, it looks. As I said, it looks like a relic from the past. It's crumbling. There is a lot of mangles up equipment lying around. It's dusty, it's dirty s o. The environment is quite striking and quite beautiful in the sense as well. So I did a few portrays off, not the miners, but people working around the minds. Of course, when you when you come out of the mind, first thing you do? Will you hand in your your hat lamp to get a recharge again? And then you you take a shower on DH? You know, they have this big shower rooms were they all shower together. And there's a guy in the cellar whose only job it is to feel these old opens to heat up the water for the showers with coal. And he's he's working down there with this, like gigantic heaters on DH. You know, like water is dripping from everywhere because the pipes are leaking and steaming. And you know this guy's only job is is Teo. Get warm water for for the miners to take a shower afterwards.

spk_0:   11:05
Do you have any favour images from the shoot? Can you describe them?

spk_1:   11:10
Most of the work is not really like digging Kolat, but enforcing the walls because the mountain there constantly the rocks are constantly moving and they're shifting around the pole, so they have to constantly adjust the pillars they have down there in order not to have the whole thing collapsed. And these pillars are steel, and they're like, filled with water to pump them up, to pressurise them and to, you know, like lift up steel beams on the top of thes shafts. So this is really hard work and, like one guy carries them on the shoulder and another guy carries it below, which really like 10 centimetres per 10 centimetres. So I have a photo off like two guys working on these pillars and, you know, like this light's criss crossing through the images and the beam is there, and this guy's holding it. Since it was like one of the places where it was really hot, it smelled like a sauna, weirdly enough, eh? So everybody was like bare chest that on DH sweating at the same time, there was like dust coming from everywhere. I think I got a really good photo that, like, really transports the way the conditions are down there in a visual way.

spk_0:   12:26
So, like you said, they were exceptionally dark conditions and you weren't using a flash. So what were you shooting with for this?

spk_1:   12:34
So I was trying out, and years are trying to see how it performs under really, really difficult circumstances. It was like, honestly, the most difficult circumstances I've ever photographed under because of the gas. A studio in those minds. You can't have electricity in there, so there's no light except the head limbs on there, like especially sealed. So you have. Either it's like entirely black or you have, like, really bright bright line. I really like pushed the camera to its limits in terms of low light capabilities, but also in terms ofthe dynamic range on DH focus off course. It's so dark that, like my eyes can't really see anymore. Which part of my image is like Exactly and focus. So I have to rely on the out of focus. So definitely and knew that I was getting images was just very difficult, and I was shooting way more than I would normally shoot on DH, since you know the headlamps are like changing the light situation every not even every second's a couple of times each second there was Muchmore off lottery on what I'm normally used Teo shooting so normally you can compose perfectly and let you know, get phases in there and like half the perfect crop. In this case, it was really about, like getting a situation and like hoping that that the right light is there in that moment,

spk_0:   14:07
from what was the whole setup.

spk_1:   14:09
So I set up my camera was very simple idea, U S R. I had better grip on it, and I used 50 mil 1.2 lengths and sometimes with 35. But obviously you don't want to change the lens when it's like Dusty and Kohli. I used the 50 even though it was quite narrow. It was still a wide enough to get everything that is happening there, and I could at the same time shoot wides and, like, do details as well. Normally, what I used to do with a five team mark force have the focus point in the middle and then focus on something and then move around the frame. The thing I liked about the years are was that you can use this screen as as a touch screen to move around the focus point. So I use that quite often, which I've never done before, like moving the focus point around in the frame in the camera, which material really helped, and especially since the resolution of the camera and the lands is so high. Andi, I was shooting with wide open aperture, so you really have to get things like spot into focus on DH. That really helped.

spk_0:   15:25
How much importance do you put on image resolution? It is

spk_1:   15:28
definitely important for me to have, like, a file that I that I can work on, that I have a good dynamic range, you know, also, like get details in the shadows and, like, get no, the light's blown out, especially in this case, because it is like, really extreme, like dark on like extreme light at the same time. So I want to be able to work a little bit on both. Hands off the light on this image. Well, it sounds tried, but like I like my son, my files to be be clean and sharp in the first place. You know, like the camera is a tool that you use for for you work. And people always say, Oh, it's not about the camera, it's about the photographer. But it's something that has to work together, and both elements have to come together and, you know, form the image of the end.

spk_0:   16:23
I believe there was a fatal accident in the mine while you were out there. He'd tell us a bit more about that

spk_1:   16:29
apart from the, you know, like the physical difficulties, the extremely manual labourer these man work on. It's also incredibly dangerous. You know, there's the safety standards are probably not up to what they would be in here and in England or in Germany or in other Western European countries. There has been a lack off investment, and of course it is very dangerous. And sadly, we were like me and my translator. We're in a shaft photographing one day, and the next morning part off the shaft collapsed and killed the minor. And the thing is, you have to keep working in these minds. If you don't the mountains, the movement's off the mountain off. The rock will destroy the shop, so you have to keep adjusting the pillars. You have to keep adjusting the steel beams in order for the whole thing not to collapse. So the the same people who were down there when the shaft lefts and killed one of the colleagues, they had to go back the next morning and keep working there. It's hard to imagine that you know, they're still jobs around in Europe, where you face these dangerous and I wasn't expecting this. I thought it was, like, more predictable and safety standards would be higher than what I encountered there.

spk_0:   18:09
Did it affect how you felt about telling the Storey?

spk_1:   18:12
Yes. Suddenly, you know, like when we were down there, I never felt inside, you know, it was, like crazy and crass to see conditions. But I, you know, people were just there. They seem quite relax. And then you you felt safe there, too. And then, like suddenly you hear news that somebody died just hours after you were there, and suddenly the whole risks risk becomes more apparent on, becomes something that is really all of a sudden. It didn't really change the way I wanted to tell the Storey, but it definitely it was something just like Joan back over and over again because it just like a matter of luck in a matter of timing.

spk_0:   19:00
So why do you think it's important to document storeys like this? Well, I

spk_1:   19:04
mean, with the work I do is, um you know, you always want to show things that I learned on seeing things that are in the dark things where you think that there's a possibility to change or that it's something people who should know about. And in this case, I mean, you know, I probably I don't think my photos will have an impact in terms ofthe these minds being closed for bettering the work conditions, off things people. But it's something that I think people you should be aware of, just in terms ofthe like well, for me, you know, like, I go there for a few hours, you know, like you get sweaty, dirty. But in the end, I'm just photographing there. My life is quite easy. You know, You get a different perspective off off the privileges you have in your life because, you know, like if I had been born in that area in Romania, there's basically no other options. Either you, you immigrate, you go to Germany or Spain or Italy to work where you stay there and work in the minds. You know, like it's generations of people who work there on DH. Now it's changing, ofcourse goes. Opportunities in the mines are going down. But like if you'd been born there 30 40 years ago, there was your destiny. There was like what you had to do and life basically if, if you didn't like, put up a real effort on DH, tried to move to a bigger city and try to break out of this and all the work I do in most of the work I do. It's like, you know, you suddenly get a perspective off off the privileges you have. I think that is always something that drives me, and I think that it's always something that is important when I photographed to to show to other people

spk_0:   21:05
Thank you for listening. If you've enjoyed this episode of shutter storeys, you can rate and subscribe in the episodes listing to find more storeys and find some social, you can click on the links in episodes description.