Bánya begins in a small village in Hungary, south of Budapest, where young English photographer George Booth-Cole meets Istvan and Aniko, a couple of farmers. Over the next seven years, he gathers testimonies from farmers, shopkeepers, and locals in this rural region, which has suffered from the impact of heavy mining industrialization. Between 2017 and 2024, he documents the deterioration of living conditions in the area as the country undergoes economic changes:“Industrialization is like a storm, a downpour; you can see it coming, you know it’s going to hit, but you can’t do anything about it.”
George Booth-Cole has already self-published several black-and-white zines. With Bánya, produced in collaboration with the Argentine publishing house Club del Prado, he remains true to the zine aesthetic while delivering a well-crafted project on an important social issue.
The artist’s sensitivity to manual work is reflected in the very design of the book: George Booth-Cole printed his own images, while Club del Prado handled the risograph printing, screen-printed cover, and binding for the 170 copies.
