Photojournalism nominee

Life in Zenica unfolds alongside steel. Homes sit beneath chimneys, gardens border factory walls, and daily routines follow the rhythm of the mills. Work at the steelworks has provided stability, income, and identity for generations, but it has also brought long-term consequences carried unevenly across the city. Families learn to live with smoke, dust, and pollution, reading the air by color and smell, and adapting to conditions that make daily life challenging. In winter, lingering pollution keeps children indoors and makes breathing difficult, while advice to avoid homegrown food or local fish conflicts with rising costs and limited alternatives. Daily survival relies on adaptation and mutual support. Wood is cut and stored for heating, vegetables are grown under plastic to protect them from dust, and neighbours share fuel, food, and labor when services fail. Elderly residents depend on regular visits and quiet acts of care. While younger generations leave in search of cleaner air and greater opportunity, others stay and maintain life. This series follows people living alongside the steelworks through a period of uncertainty and change. It is shaped by sustained observation, shared time, and conversations, tracing how care, resilience, and collective responsibility allow communities to survive.

I am a UK-based photographer and writer developing a practice in environmental and humanitarian storytelling. My work explores landscapes, communities, and ecosystems shaped by history, climate, and human presence, with a focus on place-led narratives and long-term observation. Working through self-initiated projects, I use photography and long-form writing to document environments and cultural spaces in transition. Rather than surface-level travel, my approach centres on context, lived experience, and the subtle relationships between people and the systems they inhabit. I am particularly interested in the intersection of global forces and local lives, including climate impact, conservation, heritage, and everyday resilience, and how these forces shape both land and identity.