Cage Call records mining life

Cage Call is the first instalment in the Art Gallery of Sudbury's Nickel City Stories.

The photo exhibition by Louie Palu is fitting of the theme. His black and white photos depict the unique social and economic role that mining plays in Greater Sudbury and other mining communities in the north.

Many of the photos in the collection were shot in the city at the Coniston Smelter, Falconbridge Smelter, Copper Cliff Smelter, Creighton Mine and Stobie Mine.

Tom Rannelli, a former electrician at the Five Shaft Mine in Falconbridge, was the subject of one of the images in the collection. The retiree was at the opening of the exhibition Sept. 20.

“It's an honour,” Rannelli said when asked how it felt to be part of the gallery. “Thank God there's a photographer like Lou around to record this. It won't be around forever. Mines have a habit of closing.”

He said looking through the graphic, honest photos hanging on the wall was a flashback to the 38 years he spent underground.

“All the pictures depict as it was underground,” he said.

From the dirt to the pinup girl posters in the lunchroom, everything was just as he remembered. Rannelli smiled as he recalled “the jolly bunch” he worked with.

“They never though of the danger,” he said. “Maybe that's what kept them going — a good sense of humour.”

Many of the photos seen in the collection have been compiled in a publication also called Cage Call. Timmins-James Bay NDP MP Charlie Angus provided commentary on several of the photographs.

Copies of the photo book can be purchased at the Art Gallery of Sudbury. Stop by the check out the exhibition from now until Nov. 18. For more information, visit www.artsudbury.org.