Alec is a charcoal maker. He spends about eight months a year living in a camp in rural Romania that is off a dirt road off a dirt road. No town wants the charcoal making camp nearby because of the pollution.

The process of making charcoal in the camp involves burning a huge structure, almost like a pyramid, of wood. There’s a core that has been impregnated so it is flammable. The wood structure is covered in ashes and hay, then fired. It sits for a couple of weeks, tended so that the wood within carbonizes, but does not burn.