Coal cultures : picturing mining landscapes and communities / Derrick Price.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Price, Derrick, author.

Series:

Photography, place, environment

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coal mines and mining--Pictorial works.

Coal mines and mining.

Coal mines and mining--Environmental aspects.

Mining camps--History--Sources.

Mining camps.

Community life.

History.

Genre:

History.

Pictorial works.

Sources.

Illustrated works.

Physical Description:

xi, 196 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc, 2018.

Summary:

"Coal is the commodity that powered the technologies that made the modern world. It also brought about unique communities marked by a high degree of social solidarity and self-help. Mining was central to working class life, drawing rural populations into industrial labour, but it often took place in picturesque landscapes, so that its black spoil heaps became a central symbol of the degradation of pastoral life by the demands of an extractive industry. Throughout Europe and the USA photographers have pictured the characteristic landscapes of the industry, and continue to do so as strip mining devastates huge areas of land. Not only landscape photography but also documentary, portraiture, photojournalism and art photography have been used in order to portray mines and miners. This book presents three interlinked strands of investigation. The first is the way in which the production of coal created paradigmatic communities grounded in particular landscapes. The second concerns the role of photography in exploring, delineating and critiquing mining communities. This in turn involves an examination of the aesthetic and social characteristics of a number of genres of photography. Lastly, it considers the growth and decline of these sites, the geographic shift of the industry to other places, and the re-presentation of traditional localities through the lens of the heritage industry and industrial tourism."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Coal and photography p. 3

Commodities p. 5

Types of coal p. 8

Coal and politics p. 9

The culture of coal p. 10

Reading about coal p. 11

Manifesta explores coal mining p. 12

History and memory p. 13

1 Degradation and Regeneration p. 19

A famous coal tip p. 19

The Welsh mining valleys p. 20

Degraded landscapes p. 23

Picturing mining p. 25

The Bechers p. 29

Mining landscapes today p. 31

Aberfan p. 34

Memory and community p. 36

Landscape after Aberfan p. 37

2 Images of Miners p. 41

Women in mining p. 42

The Munby archive p. 44

Women, mining and romance p. 46

Masculine bonding p. 48

The miner as hero p. 50

Picturing workers p. 52

The FSA and the 1930s p. 53

Documenting three tenant families p. 57

Russell Lee p. 58

Lewis Hine p. 62

British 1930s documentary p. 65

The critique of documentary p. 68

3 Mining Communities: Coal Camps and Mining Villages p. 73

The cultural life of mining settlements p. 77

Disasters p. 78

Disasters on film p. 81

Moving and visiting p. 84

Artisanal mining p. 89

Bootleg mining p. 91

Free miners of the forest p. 92

Sea coal p. 93

The future of coal communities p. 97

4 Fog, Smog and Pollution p. 99

Fog in London p. 99

Coal gas p. 102

The dustmen of London p. 103

Fighting pollution p. 105

Smog and art p. 106

London and New York p. 108

Pollution p. 113

5 Strikes and Conflict p. 117

The British miners' strike of 1984/1985 p. 119

Women's groups p. 126

Retrospective accounts p. 128

In Harlan County p. 131

Matewan p. 132

The Battle of Blair Mountain p. 134

6 The New Landscapes Of Coal p. 139

Post-industrial landscapes and photography p. 141

The Valleys Project p. 142

Reconnaissance - Wales p. 145

Stripping the land p. 146

Mountain top removal p. 147

Mountains and the sublime p. 151

The sublime in art p. 152

The American technological sublime p. 153

The Anthropocene p. 155

Burtynsky p. 158

7 Heritage, Memory and Nostalgia p. 161

Coat and the heritage industry p. 161

Industrial tourism p. 162

Heritage tourism and modernity p. 163

Tourism and photography p. 164

Nostalgia p. 167

Nostalgia for coal p. 168

Souvenirs p. 168

Memorabilia p. 171

Mining memorials p. 173

Ruins p. 174.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350037830

1350037834

OCLC:

1035748014