The Faces of Industry

Most modern cities in Ukraine have a significant industrial heritage. In some cases, it is dominant in the urban space while in others it is marginal, but regardless of the treatment of this heritage, it is difficult to deny its presence in the past or even present life of the country, region, settlements, and individual people.

Pipes breathing black smoke is a common image of industry in the urban landscape. Smoke, which can encompass the picturesque landscape around a factory or plant, also obscures the complex and controversial history of Soviet industrialization. And if the outlines of the workshops or waste heaps, due to their bulkiness are capable of emerging from this smokescreen, human faces usually remain unnoticed.

Photographs exhibited in the gallery consist of collections of the Interpipe NTRP History MuseumCenter for Urban History of East Central EuropeH.S. Pshenychnyi Central State Cinema, Photo and Phono Archvive of Ukraine, private collection of Mariya Ferneza and Tetiana Goshchitska.

Oleksiy Chebotarov