2008 Photo Contest, Daily Life, 2nd prize
Photographer

Carolyn Drake

Panos Pictures

01 January, 2006

Unemployed miners stand near a housing complex abandoned when utilities were turned off after a mine closure. Torez was once a flourishing coalmining town. Under communism, miners' salaries were among the highest in the Soviet Union and miners were seen as national heroes. But since Ukrainian independence the coal industry has attracted little government investment. The mines here are deep and extraction unprofitable. With many mines in disrepair, safety has become an issue. Scores of them have been closed, leaving many miners jobless.

About the photographer

Carolyn Drake

This image is collected in