The Sparrow by Asher Svidensky

Abstract

In December, 2015, I visited a town called Nalaikh in Mongolia. Nalaikh was built as a coal mining town during the communist regime in Mongolia and served as the main supplier of coal to the capital Ulaanbaatar. As time passed, many Mongolians moved into Nalaikh, finding work in the massive coal mining factory, but Nalaikh's prosperity came to an abrupt end in the early 1990s when the communist regime ended, the factory ceased all of its activities, and the town fell into darkness. In the years that followed, as a last resort to provide for their families, some residents of Nalaikh decided to dig their own holes in the ground and illegally mine the precious coal themselves. In Nalaikh, I met a young miner who we decided to codename The Sparrow to protect his identity. After I told him about my photo project he agreed to take me underground and introduce me to the world of the illegal mines. Later, I found myself squeezing into a rusty metal bathtub connected with a cable to an old engine that lowered the tub down in complete darkness through a roughly carved tunnel. The Sparrow and his colleagues had to dig deep in order to reach the thick layer of quality coal. With a camera in hand I crawled after him through a system of tunnels, barely big enough for a grown person to sit, lit only by a series of mostly blinking lightbulbs and the headlights that were connected to the miners' helmets. Work went on around the clock; teams excavated the coal in rotations; some miners used hammers to break the coal out of the walls and others loaded it into the metal bathtub that we had used to get down into the mine. Once the metal bathtub was full, the miners would drag it to the entrance, pull it up to the surface and add the coal to a pile outside, waiting for someone to buy it. None of the miners I met had any safety equipment. The air that they breathed was dusty and dirty and the atmosphere in the mine was oppressive. These terrible conditions put the men at increased risk of a range of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The image on the cover is The Sparrow as he worked a shift on the surface, painstakingly sorting good coal from bad coal before it was sold. Asher Svidensky is a freelance photographer who specialises in art and documentary images. His career began when he was conscripted to the Israeli military in 2009, where he served as a photographer. After completing his military service, he picked up a bag and a camera, and followed his dream to become a documentary photographer. Asher Svidensky is a freelance photographer who specialises in art and documentary images. His career began when he was conscripted to the Israeli military in 2009, where he served as a photographer. After completing his military service, he picked up a bag and a camera, and followed his dream to become a documentary photographer.