/ 2025 / /

• Prize
  Shortlist
• Photographer
  Tung-Lin Tsai, Taiwan
• Category
  Asia

In the depths of Asian mines, miners live at the bottom of society. Every dawn, they navigate through dark and damp tunnels filled with gas and coal dust. Their faces are pale, covered in coal dust, their hands rough and cracked, and many develop pneumoconiosis at a young age. Each descent into the mine is a battle with death, constantly vigilant against cave-ins and explosions. For meager wages, they can only continue to trade their lives and health for their family's basic needs, struggling to survive on the edge of poverty and danger.