Rafal Milach

The first thing you notice by the sea is the concrete. Kilometers of grey blocks sometimes painted with blue and yellow, the national colors of Ukraine. You can feel the soviet past at once. It looks surreal and it doesn’t match the beautiful landscape that surrounds you. Industrial zones and the iron waste by the sea don’t remind harmonic idyll between nature and man. People have changed the landscape in a very brutal way here. But the sea fights back for its natural shape and territory. Local people seem to respect the power of the sea. Nevertheless at he same time they thoughtlessly devastate it. This wired symbiosis makes this piece of land fascinating. I went to the Ukrainian Black Sea coast to explore this mutual influence and relation between the man and sea. Ukraine is the country in transition and for the last few years has been looking for its new identity. In my opinion so has the Black Sea coast.
Rafal Milach

From the images I have seen HERE I feel that there is something very compelling about the chosen subject. A part of Europe that has been kept in the dark, here in the west there is not many of us who know a great deal about this far away place that is in reality so near.
The reason for it being on Blurb.com is because it was an entry for a Photobook competition, where it won first prize. I find these sorts of competitions which involve the Arts to be very problematic, does the winning artist have more creativity than someone who came in 99th place? does their work represent their methodology as accurately a they had originally set out to do? constant questions eh?

Anyway regardless of my ranting, I think looking at the bigger picture, there is no reason why this book shouldn't have won, the images look stunning, I only wish that I could see the whole book so I could experience the journey/narrative. But at £80-odd quid I don't think I will be purchasing it anytime soon, its a bit steep like!

Anyway, enjoy the work, its of excellent quality. You can see a lot more of this project and many others HERE on his website.