About This Series

"For years Anne and I had read about the serious problems facing miners in Appalachia. We read about the mine explosions resulting in numerous deaths. Many miners suffered from black lung disease, which the mine owners did not consider an illness caused by work in the mines and therefore not subject to worker's compensation.

In 1962 we decided to spend out summer vacation time in the minefields of Appalachia. Most of the larger mines were cosed at that time. The only ones functioning were small, run by a handful of miners who leased them from the big mine owners. Day after day we drove around looking for small mines, where I asked the miners if I could photograph them. Mainly I concentrated on the families who lived in the mining areas. I photographed them in their homes and on their porches, where they sat to get some relief from the stifling heat. The results of the first summer's work were so encouraging that we returned to that area over a period of nine summers." – Milton Rogovin

Related Publications

• Picture Man: the Poetry of Photographer Milton Rogovin, [DVD] 19 min. 23 sec, 70 photographs, 17 poems, 2009

• Milton Rogovin: The Lens & the Pen: Photographs and Poems, Published by Palisade Press, 2009

• Milton Rogovin: The Making of a Social Documentary Photographer, University of Washington Press and the Center for Creative Photography, September 30, 2006

• The Bonds Between Us: Family Portraits From Around The World, White Pine Press, 2001

• Milton Rogovin: The Forgotten Ones, University of Washington Press, 1985; Quantuck Lane Press, 2003

• Milton Rogovin: The Mining Photographs, The Getty Museum, Oxford University Press, 2005

For curriculum and a folio download of the Appalachia series, please visit the education page.