In the German Rhineland, people’s lives are marked by huge, slowly but steadily creeping holes that have already swallowed up fields, dozens of villages and entire forests. They are marked by their powerlessness in the face of an energy giant, which is rooted more deeply in the region than any tree in the resettlement sites. What does it feel like to look into these gaping holes and know: Somewhere there was my home?
The project Niemandsland looks at the conflict over the extraction of brown coal by the energy company RWE, which operates the opencast mines Hambach, Garzweiler and Inden. Together, they form the largest source of CO2 emissions in all of Europe. To enlarge the mines, fields had to give way, forests were cut down and entire villages destroyed and resettled. While Germany claims itself to be in a leading position in the transition towards renewables, the country is still heavily dependent on coal for energy production, with brown coal being the dirtiest source of energy available.
Since 2012, resistance has formed in the environmental movement, starting with the occupation of the Hambach Forest by activists living there in tree houses to protect it from being cut. The conflict escalated in 2018 with the eviction of the occupied forest. Its remainder however, threatened by the expansion of the mine, was finally saved. This success gave courage to the inhabitants of six remaining villages to also fight against their resettlement, joining forces with activists. I documented this conflict over space to examine the current struggle in Germany between environmental, public and economic interests. The work captures the beginning of the end of the coal era within the transition of energy production in Germany.
Daniel Chatard (*1996) is a German-French documentary photographer and visual researcher. He investigates themes revolving around power structures, collective identity, and trauma. Looking at landscapes as vessels of collective experiences and memories, he tells human stories in their environmental context.
Daniel graduated in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the University of Applie Sciences and Arts Hanover, and in Photography & Society at the Royal Academy of Arts The Hague. He lives in Hamburg and works as a freelance photojournalist with media outlets such as Die ZEIT, Der Spiegel, and Bloomberg.
Daniel describes his approach as involved documentary, making his own relations to his subjects part of the work and using collaboration to create new knowledge. His long-term project Niemandsland was awarded at the World Press Photo Award and published by the Eriskay Connection in 2024.
