When standing by a fresh coal seam, measures to tackle climate change seem very far away, but it is the workers that feel their impact first.
Dirty Job (2017–2022) is a documentary photo story depicting life in coal mines in the US and on Finnish peat bogs. It tells the story of people who work at the forefront of the green transition.
For a century, coal and peat have shaped lives in rural areas. For fossil fuels, people have moved mountains and drained boglands, risking the well-being of the environment and humans in the process. Communities have been built and families have been started on coal and peat.
Over the past couple of decades, the coal industry has gradually withered and not even a profound fossil fuel advocate President Trump could bring it back. Finland’s peat sector has experienced a similar fate, with production dropping three quarters in the past couple of years. Professions that used to be highly respected are now looked down on.
We view the time limits set for carbon neutrality from totally different perspectives. While for some they are a milestone that mark the achievement of sustainability, for those who are personally affected by these decisions, they are deadlines before which peatlands and machines must be made the most of.
As policies designed to stave off climate change are putting an end to the use of fossil fuels, communities are left to face an uncertain future. The old way of life is disappearing faster than a new one can emerge, and the transition is painful.
Dirty Job exhibition was at The Finnish Labour Museum Werstas 3.2.-6.8.2023
The non-fiction book Dirty Job – the winners and losers of climate policies (Likainen työ – ilmastopolitiikan voittajat ja häviäjät) combines investigative journalistic articles and photojournalism to explore local problems from a global perspective. It takes the reader to peatlands, coal mines and a meeting room of a carbon offsetting company to see what the world looks like from the focal point of the green transition.
Order the book here. (Like, 2023)
This project is open to all inquiries. Funded by Maj & Tor Nessling Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre Finland, Foundation Supporting Finnish Journalistic Culture, Patricia Seppälä Foundation, and Finnfoto Association.