Welsh Coal Miner
X.050.09
Robert Frank was born in Zurich in 1924 and immigrated to the United States in 1947. Since then, he has produced work that has changed the history of art and photography. Frank later expanded into film and video, and experimented with manipulating photographs and photomontage. He divides his time between New York City and Cape Breton.
This image of Welsh coal miners is part of a series in which Frank juxtaposes the elegant world of London with the grimy working-class world of post-war Wales. In Wales, Frank made friends with a miner named Ben James and photographed him extensively at work and at home. The photograph offers an important view of Frank's early development, demonstrating an interest in social commentary and narrative that would appear later in his book, “The Americans,” which, both in style and sequencing was one of a handful of major innovations in 20th-century photography.