15th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest People
Blacksmith of his own fortune 11

Blacksmith of his own fortune is a series of portraits created in firm the auto industry in my hometown of Vinkovci. Before World War II forge belonged to a Jewish family Gross who had to leave town and get away from Europe because of the coming of Nazism. After the war, the company was nationalized and state-owned, and after the war in 1991 is owned by the Slovenian-Croatian coroporation. Today's business owners have modernized company with the exterior aluminium shuttering, but the interior and working conditions for the blacksmiths have not changed much throughout history. They work for a relatively small profit in darkened areas with summer temperatures exceed 60 ° C. The entire collection consists of 140 portraits.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 03.2016
Date Uploaded: 11.2017
Photo Location: Vinkovci, Croatia
Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Copyright: © Zvonimir Tanocki