The Last Herb Pickers

• Prize
  Gold in Editorial/Personality
• Photographer
  Dominika Koszowska
• Technical Info
  1/160, F 8,00, Iso 100 Canon Eos 6 D, Ef 100 Full Frame
• Photo Date
  2018

In Podlachia – one of the cleanest regions in Poland – for many generations locals have been gathering medicinal plants – wildly-growing herbs. They pick flowers and leaves, dig for roots and peel branches for bark. They’re often bothered by heat, pestered by mosquitoes and ticks, they need to remain in a bent position for many hours at a stretch, and then they must carry back everything they’ve gathered. Alas, there are very few real gatherers left – they’re mostly elderly people that have been harvesting herbs from the wild for several dozen years now. My goal was to save their work.

A doctoral student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. A graduate of WSTI and ASP in Katowice. Master's degree realized at the Academy of Fine Arts in Photography Studio of dr hab. Piotr Muschalik, defended in 2017 with honors, it won the third prize in Poland in the Design32 competition for the best design diplomas of the Academy of Fine Arts, also considered one of the best by "Font font" in the photography category (2018).