2014 Photo Contest, Nature, 2nd prize

toxic beauty

Photographer

Kacper Kowalski

Panos Pictures

10 September, 2013

The Police Chemical Plant is a major producer of mineral multi-component fertilizers, acids and ammonia, and is one of Poland’s biggest exporters.

Views from the air reveal an impact of industry on the environment that is hard to see from the ground, as effluent leeches into the Polish landscape—coal ash (the waste that remains after coal is combusted, containing toxic heavy metals) from power stations, by-products of mining, emissions from chemical factories.

About the photographer

Kacper Kowalski

Kacper Kowalski, born in 1977, was supposed to be an architect. Yet five years of studies and four of designing were more than enough for him. In 2006, he eventually quit his job...

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/500
Focal length
70.0 mm
F-Stop
8.0
ISO
320
Camera
Nikon D3X

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