Honorable Mention / 2019 / Portraiture / Personality

The Last Herb Picker

  • Photographer
    Dominika Koszowska, Poland
  • Studio
    Poland

In Podlachia – one of the cleanest regions in Poland – for many generations locals have been gathering medicinal plants – wildly-growing herbs. They pick flowers and leaves, dig for roots and peel branches for bark. They’re often bothered by heat, pestered by mosquitoes and ticks, they need to remain in a bent position for many hours at a stretch, and then they must carry back everything they’ve gathered. Alas, there are very few real gatherers left – they’re mostly elderly people that have been harvesting herbs from the wild for several dozen years now. My goal was to save their work.

Awards The most important photographic awards and honorable mentions: Mobile Photography Awards 2015, 2016, 2017 - 7 honorable mentons, Mira Mobile Prize 2016, 2017 - shortlist, awords 2000 Euro Cewe Awords 2017, WKF National Geografic 2016 - 2 awards, Mobil Art From all over the world - winner