Fire Continuum
A fire has been burning in the opencast coalfields of Jharia, Jharkhand, for more than a century. Homes and schools, temples and mosques—places that were thriving with life now lie consumed by flames.
In focussing his lens on Jharia, photographer Ronny Sen illuminated the environmental degradation that has made life in Jharia uninhabitable. The photographs provided snatches of a people without a future—a community forced to plunder coal while navigating an apocalyptic landscape.
Medium: Photographic series
Year: 2014
Team
Ronny Sen
Filmmaker and Photographer
Ronny Sen is a film director, screenwriter, and photographer based in Kolkata. His debut feature film Cat Sticks world-premiered in the competition section at Slamdance in 2019, and won a Jury award. He has directed television documentaries for the BBC. He started his career as a photographer and has made two artist books, Khmer Din (2013) and End of Time(2016). He was invited to be an artist in residence in Japan by the Japan Foundation in 2013 and in Poland by the Polish Institute in 2016. He received the Getty Images Instagram Grant in 2016 for his work in the Jharia coal mines which were shown in his debut solo exhibition in 2018 titled Fire Continuum at the gallery Tarq in Mumbai. His works are included in the permanent collection of the Alkazi Collection of Photography.
