Ema is the result of several years of photographic work in Kolonia Emma, a mining settlement in Radlin, Upper Silesia, Poland.

Built around the Marcel coal mine, the estate has lived for generations to the rhythm of the mine and the people whose lives are bound to it. The photographs move between the industrial landscape, the intimacy of the human body and the traces left by physical labour.

Ema is also a personal journey — an attempt to understand my own roots, what it means to come from this place, and my relationship with photography itself.