Taking technology to the coalface: photographing the last Romanian miners

This formed part of what drew Daniel to the Lupeni and Lonea coal mines in Romania’s Jiu Valley, with their relics of communism amid what he knew to be a beautiful landscape. The scenes he found were more dramatic than expected, littered with defunct equipment, enclosed in crumbling walls. And the resulting ambient-lit depictions of everyday Romanian miners’ lives have a dark melancholy tone familiar in his work – and, crucially for a documentary photographer, they are a closer representation of the shadowy truth.

“When you see this place, it looks like it was abandoned 20-40 years ago. It’s crumbling, and there are lorries lying around, mangled-up steel pipes and beams – and yet, there are people working there underground,” he says.

World fuel politics adds context and depth to its narrative, but Daniel honed in on documenting the daily lives of the workers, and pushed the limitations of imaging technology to show the extreme working conditions up to 350 metres below ground.

Digital possibilities

The Berlin-based photographer started out shooting on film cameras – a BMX rider, photographing his friends. It’s perhaps a natural step to the adrenaline-fuelled situations you can find yourself in as a photojournalist, and the free-mindedness that can be associated with subcultures speaking truth to power.

The Canon EOS R system heralds new realms of low-light capabilities – performing down to low light extremes of -6EV. “You can shoot, basically, with no light at all in the early hours of the morning or late at night. This really changed the way I’m able to work, and opened up a new world of possibilities.”

People call photography ‘painting with light’, and to take it into the depths of the Earth where headlamps offer the only light source extends the boundaries of image-making technology: the speed and accuracy of the Dual Pixel autofocus and dynamic range of the 30MP sensor were tested.

“I was expecting something less archaic [from the mines],” says Daniel. “You go in there, and for an hour [you’re] in absolute darkness, with only the light from your hat lamp. The further you go in, the narrower it gets.”

Crawling on all fours at times, crossing conveyor belts transporting coal to the surface, Daniel knew he would have to work with the Canon RF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens he had on – because even with the shutter on the Canon EOS R automatically closing to protect the sensor, he couldn’t see or risk changing lenses.

“Honestly, it was the most difficult circumstances I’ve ever photographed under. Because of the gas in the mines, you can’t have electricity, so the only light was from [specially-sealed] headlamps.” Assurance had to be established that the camera did not bring risk of explosion before he could enter.

The conditions would have prevented photographers even a decade ago from photographing these little-changed scenes, restricted by the pervasive dust and water to the roll of 36 frames they entered with.

“It might sound a little amateurish but, with my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, when it’s so dark that your AF doesn’t work any more and your eyes are at their limit, I was using the back screen and zooming in quite a lot. Now [with the EOS R] I can do that in the natural position with my eyes on the EVF. I see a pretty good representation of what the images are going to look like.”

“I expected it be more mechanised and more automated but it’s really just hard labour and people working with pick-axes and jackhammers, and carrying around these big steel pillars that are filled with water and weigh more than 100 kilos. It’s really, really tough work and I was hoping to show just that.”

An hour into the depths of the mine, Daniel was presented with a space reinforced with beams manually shifted by workers to support the walls of coal. Dust and heat radiate from the images, with men stripped to the waist illuminated by shafts of shifting light as the miners graft.

But that doesn’t mean Daniel didn’t push the Canon EOS R to its limits in terms of low-light capabilities, dynamic range and focus. “It’s so dark that my eyes can’t see which part of my image is in focus,” he says, “so I have to rely on the autofocus.”

Unable to change his batteries for fear of inviting the pervasive dust into his camera, Daniel was equipped with the Battery Grip BG-E22 battery grip, which enabled him to shoot all day and all night, “and I still had half [the charge] left when I got back to my hotel.”

“I’m not working in a studio – the conditions I work under are constantly changing. Sometimes it’s in a mine, it’s underground, it’s pitch black. Sometimes it’s overground. Sometimes it’s something I have to do really quickly. Sometimes I have time for portraits.

“I’m shooting everything you can imagine and trying to get a cohesive story out of it in the end, so I need a camera that works in all of these circumstances and all of these environments.”

“I had black slush raining down on me,” he continues. It highlights an important consideration for photojournalists and their relationship with the tools of their trade: they capture moments that often can’t be repeated, without opportunities to return.

“I try to be there and record things while they’re happening,” says Daniel. “The most important thing for me is to have a camera that’s absolutely reliable and takes a photo when I want it to take a photo – even in adverse conditions, it keeps on working.”

The reality of his position, and of the conditions he was capturing, was brought into sharp focus when four hours after he left a tunnel it collapsed, killing a miner.

Daniel doesn’t have misconceptions about his week in Romania, or about the reach of the story. “In this case, I don’t think my photos will have an impact as far as this mine being closed or bettering the work conditions of these people.

“You always strive to take a photo that has an impact, that moves people, that makes people want to help and want to get engaged. But the other aspect that is really important to me, is that you become aware of the differences that there are.”

Above ground, Daniel created piercing portraits of the miners so detailed that you can see the coal dust ingrained in their skin and accumulated in the corners of their eyes.

“When miners get out after a shift of work their faces are black, they have coal under their eyes and in their pores. In most jobs, you don’t see how people work. In this case, it’s very clear in the way they look – their jobs are in their faces. They are almost a direct representation of what they do.”

„Canon“ EOS R galimybės prasto apšvietimo sąlygomis

1. Viso kadro 30 MP jutiklis
„Canon“ EOS R turi viso kadro 36 x 24 mm 30,3 MP jutiklį su „Dual Pixel Raw“. Jame taip pat yra „Canon Dual Pixel CMOS AF“ technologija, užtikrinanti greitą ir tikslų automatinį fokusavimą net ir esant prastam apšvietimui.

2. Novatoriškas objektyvo laikiklis
EOS R objektyvo apsodas – tai EOS R sistemos širdis. Trijų dešimtmečių EOS naujovių kulminacija – šis 12 kontaktų laikiklis, suteikiantis daugiau galios objektyvams ir galimybę fotoaparatui ir objektyvui užmegzti ryšį gerokai greičiau.

3. Ryškesni objektyvai
Revoliucinio dizaino laikiklis turi trumpą galinį fokusavimą ir plačiausią objektyvo angą iš visų 35 mm sistemų. Tai suteikia galimybę tobulinti objektyvo dizainą ir našumą. „Canon“ RF 50 mm f/1.2L USM, „Canon“ RF 24–105 mm f/4L IS USM, „Canon“ RF 35 mm f/1.8 IS Macro STM ir „Canon“ RF 28–70 mm f/2L USM objektyvai fotografams ir filmų kūrėjams suteikia sklandesnį, greitesnį, tylesnį fokusavimą, pritaikymą naudojant ant objektyvo esančius valdymo žiedus, o „Canon“ RF 24–105 mm f/4L IS USM“ atveju – naują vaizdo stabilizavimo lygį, palyginti su ankstesniais objektyvais.

4. Ypatingai greitas automatinis fokusavimas
Dėl novatoriško objektyvo laikiklio, kuris pastebimai padidina jautrumą, EOS R suteikia išskirtinai greitą automatinio fokusavimo funkciją viso kadro fotoaparatui be veidrodžių.

Tai apima akių aptikimo AF funkciją, kuri veikia vieno kadro AF režimu, „Servo AF“ režimu ir „Movie Servo AF“, siekiant užtikrinti, kad subjektų akys būtų aiškiai sufokusuotos.

5. Šviečiantis EVF
„Canon“ EOS R 3,69 milijonų taškų elektroninis vaizdo ieškiklis (EVF) leidžia matyti beveik tamsoje, o „Touch and Drag AF“ per 5 655 AF taškus (sudarančius 88 % kadro vertikaliai ir 100 % horizontaliai) leidžia matyti ir sutelkti dėmesį į tai, ko norite.

6. EF objektyvo adapteriai
„Canon“ laikiklio adapteris EF-EOS R leidžia sklandžiai naudoti visus esamus EF ir EF-S objektyvus su EOS R, neprarandant kokybės, sukuriant tą patį fokusavimo našumą, jautrumą ir funkcionalumą.

Išbandykite viso kadro „Canon“ EOS R sistemą be veidrodžių „Photokina“ renginyje Kelne, Vokietijoje, rugsėjo 26–29 d.