Black Stone Burns interweaves the complex stories of the communities and people whose lives have been irrevocably shaped and moulded by the global mining industry and rampant extractivism. Spanning four years, five countries, and three continents, the project starts with family stories and pictures from Olga Sokal’s hometown of Bełchatów in Poland. She continues to the lost American dreams of Appalachian coal mining towns and then investigates the United Kingdom’s fraught history with coal through an analysis of advertising and greenwashing. Finally, Sokal’s journey takes her to the vast coal mines of China and the environmental degradation caused by large-scale extraction.
168 pages, 22 x 28 cm, softcover, Fw: Books (Amsterdam).