Project Oder: The environmental disaster on the Oder River continues for another month. The mass death of animals and the destruction of the river's ecosystem prompt questions about both the role of wildlife for humans and the effectiveness of public policies to protect the environment.
With the support of the European Climate Foundation, the Sputnik Photos collective is carrying out a project related to the situation on the Oder River.
Rafal Milach, Justyna Streichsbier, Michal Luczak, Adam Panczuk, Agnieszka Rayss and Karolina Gembara are collecting stories about the environmental disaster on the Oder River, working with journalists_women and activists_women.
We will try_to look at the Oder issue broadly, going beyond news narratives.
You can read the first part of the article here: https://kwartalnikfotografia.pl/projekt-odra-2/
***
Milena Soporowska: In your film, picturesque, even romantic images of nature are interspersed with a story about the stench of poisonous phenol deposited in the muscles of fish, in the silt, about dead eels and toxic steam rising from the river. Why did you decide to use such a strong contrast?
Adam Panchuk: - I wanted to show what we can lose, what the same river can look like when we do not harm it. The frames are accompanied at the same time by the voice of Mr. Alfred informing about the systemic destruction of its ecosystem. The footage was deliberately shot on the section of the Oder River that was least affected by the disaster. I chose such frames so that the damage was not as visible as in the vicinity of the Gliwice canal.
The story of Alfred Ogorzelec shows that the disaster on the Oder River was preceded by a series of reckless and often illegal actions, such as the consistent pouring of sewageów. Why only the August events finally caught the attention of the medióIn, the wider public?
- As it turns out, until now, the poisoning of the river has taken place quietly, gradually. At the time, the limits of its ecosystem, such as salinity and significant changes in water levels, had not yet had time to occur. In August, all these factors piled up, triggering a catastrophic chain reaction. This spectacular catastrophe, inevitably caught the public's attention.
Your previous projects often feature nature, and you explore the relationship between man and nature. What struck you most during your trip to the Oder River?
- What struck me most was that, paradoxically, this relationship between man and the river as a result of the poisoning was not broken - quite the opposite. The residents of the riverfront organized themselves from the bottom up and fought to clean up the river. This disaster showed that the river belongs to them.
***
You started the project a few months after the disaster, away from the media hype and news reports. As a photographer, what gives you time distance and a calmer rhythm with such subjects? How does it affect the photographic process itself?
Agnieszka Rayss: - Such a situation has its advantages and disadvantages - working a long time after the disaster cuts me off from the spectacular images of dead fish, anglers wading through the water, experts showing the effects of the disaster. The passage of time is also an advantage, it allows one to reflect on the causes and consequences of the disaster, to participate in the daily life of people living along the Oder River. One can realize how much we depend on the river and that our actions are not indifferent to it. Even if the news from the Oder River has faded into the background, this disaster did not end with the disappearance of the news headlines. We may have to deal with it in the future, it may get worse, and there is also talk that it will affect other rivers.
In the vicinity of Kędzierzyn-Koźle you passed, among other things, the port, śbacklashThe Klodnica River on the Gliwice Canal or the Nitrogen Plant. Someóre of these facilitiesów do not function in their original form, others have been operating since the 1940s. What role does Oder play in their activities?
- In Upper Silesia, the Oder is a river that is used, a useful river, which does not mean that it is completely subservient to man, Thanks to the locks on the Gliwice Canal and the leveling of the water level through them, it is possible to sail from the Oder all the way to Gliwice. The Oder is a navigable route. A spectacular example was the transport of a giant TBM from the port of Szczecin to Opole. Industrial plants are often built on riverbanks precisely because of the proximity of river transportation. They also benefit from the proximity of water to cool equipment, as in the case of thermal power plants. Unfortunately, waste water is often discharged into rivers, including the Oder. Perhaps this is what sparked the environmental disaster on the Oder.
You also visited the open rehearsal of Dorota Miskiewicz, Agnieszka Wilczynska, Lena Frankiewicz and Milosz Pękala forming the Voices of the river. The poetic-vocal-sound project is a tribute to the Oder River. The result of this meeting is not only documentation, but also a short video of a journey along the Oder juxtaposed with audio recordings. What new threads does working with moving image and sound open up for you? What new chapter does it open in the story of the river?
- The juxtaposition of sound, image and text in this case is a signal that artists in different media are tackling a similar subject, and that we can join forces for an important cause in a way that suits us all. I've worked with video before, shooting a film in Iceland in which nature played a big role. So this is not new to me, but rather a refreshing experience. Video brings a kind of refreshment to a practice focused on a fixed image, it allows you to focus on other aspects, it is stretched out over time, and there are many possibilities with image editing. In the case of Voices of the river a great role is played by the text written by Zuzanna Bojda and Sandra Szwarc, which I selected from the project for short films. This text plays brilliantly with the image and talks about the disaster without pathos.
***
Milena Soporowska: You traveled along the Oder River to talk to people about their relationship with the river. According to what key did you select your interviewees and interviewees?
Olga: - The key was very simple, I would say analog - we simply spent a few days on the Oder River, driving from town to town, stopping at random places on the map and puzzling out the people we met on the river. Sometimes they were walkers, sometimes anglers, sometimes people who run businesses. It's also not that it was easy to meet someone. Some places had their backs turned to the river, the wharves overgrown, making it impossible to even walk. We asked about how one lives on the river, what the river is, and of course the August disaster was in the background.
What is the biggest change in dealing with the river after the disaster that emerges from your project?
Olga: - Many people talked about the experience, although this theme did not resonate immediately, in their first words. We noticed that many people had trouble naming what happened - they tended not to use the words "catastrophe", "poisoning of the river", more often they described specific situations: "dead fish were flowing." Many people spoke of fear, of uncertainty, of conflicting information about the situation on the Oder, but we also met quite a few who almost didn't register the poisoning, or considered it a temporary inconvenience that they thought had already passed.
The aspect of human activity is strongly present in the photos included in the material - dams, bridges, human structures assimilating the element appear like a refrain. As a photographer, what interested you the most in this compilation?
Michael: - Our illusory belief that we can tame the river. Hundreds of years we have been trying to understand and control this element, and as it turns out, even with the recent disaster, we have no clear answers as to what mechanisms worked. Of course, there are many places where the Oder River seems wild. But even there, when you look at it more closely, you can see fortified banks. I realize that at the current stage of development of civilization we are not able to live on natural and fully unregulated rivers. But it's nice to think, to imagine what such a river could look like and what ecosystems it would build if not for our actions. Unfortunately, there were few places along our route that could at least help us imagine such a vision.