PROJECTS

Hard Coal: The Mines

Coal mining was an alien world when I started photographing the tiny ramshackle mines near my Pennsylvania hometown. It took many friend-of-a-friend meetings and trips out to meet mine crews to gain entry to this close-knit society. What I assumed were tough jobs of economic necessity revealed themselves as an intricate brotherhood going back generations, and deeply woven into the community. This has become an ongoing project for me as I document an industry which has become controversial and the people whose ties to it go beyond a paycheck.

Anthracite, the miners say, is better and harder and burns cleaner than the common bituminous coal most people are familiar with. Blasted out of the ground in a tiny footprint of Pennsylvania it is still mined the way it’s always been, with dynamite and pick axes and men going hundreds of feet down rickety tracks to the strangely pure air sandwiched between layers of solid rock.

Not many anthracite mines are left in Pennsylvania, fewer than a dozen, and I am documenting their world and the changing landscape, both physical and emotional, left behind as the mining world changes. These are not the big mines run by corporations but small, family-owned mines, scraping by with an average of four people working each mine.

This is a noisy, dirty place and the miners are filthy and exhausted right when I want to take their portrait, often using large and ultra-large format film cameras but sometimes a Nikon D750 and a few times an iphone. I'm documenting the anthracite mines left in central Pennsylvania, the sweeping poverty and changing landscape left behind as the mining community has shrunk, and the lives of those living in the small towns dependent on mining.

To see Hard Coal: The Portraits click here

**Coal tipple and entrance to underground at the Harris Mine**

Underground, Harris Mine, Northumberland County, PennsylvaniaAnthracite is mined largely by hand using the same 19th century techniques as generations before. The coal seams are narrow and steep which prevents use of large equipment. Unlike the large bituminous mines which have hundreds of people working below the anthracite mines have only a handful. — **Underground, Harris Mine,**
**Northumberland County, Pennsylvania**
Anthracite is mined largely by hand using the same 19th century techniques as generations before. The coal seams are narrow and steep which prevents use of large equipment. Unlike the large bituminous mines which have hundreds of people working below the anthracite mines have only a handful.

*Bender Mine in the Snow* *available as a silver gelatin photograph*

**View of the mine entrance as seen through the mine shanty window at Little Buck mine, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.**

**Old B&B Mine tipple, 2012. (mine is now closed and decommissioned)**

**Superior Coal Company, Good Springs, Pennsylvania**
A coal processing plant which has been operating since the 1940's. The small mines sell their raw coal to the breakers who then process it and sell to customers for home heating.

Justin, a miner in his mid twentiesA core of anthracite miners work in mines owned by their families. Others move from mine to mine as employment conditions change. There are fewer than a dozen independent, family-owned anthracite mines left in Pennsylvania, down from 140 in 1985. Most employ fewer than 6 people. — **Justin, a miner in his mid twenties**
A core of anthracite miners work in mines owned by their families. Others move from mine to mine as employment conditions change. There are fewer than a dozen independent, family-owned anthracite mines left in Pennsylvania, down from 140 in 1985. Most employ fewer than 6 people.

**Changing room, Shingara Mine, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania**

**Third-generation miner Bob relishes being underground. "It's peaceful. No one can bother you."**