ABSTRACT
The dominant image of the miner is of a grime-darkened man wearing a hard hat, holding a shovel and standing next to a cage. But for many centuries miners were, and in some countries are, women and children, some as young as 5. Arthur J. Munby was obsessed with women who made a living by hard work. Fictional accounts of mining life often featured working women as characters in a romance. The life of the village depends on the pit. The amateur groups had been helped by trade unions who saw photography as an important tool for recording social and industrial life. Life magazine used photojournalism from 1936, and in both the United States and Europe photo magazines were becoming immensely popular. The Farm Security Administration was quite well funded, well organized and passionately involved in its work.
