Photographer Captures Daily Struggles of the English Seacoal Miner

June 2, 2016 2:30 pm
Scottish seacoal mining photo book
Scottish seacoal mining photo book
Chris Killip

On and off for six years, photographer Chris Killip lived at a seacoal camp in Lynemouth, England, where he shot oftentimes unwilling subjects. There, Killip captured the daily struggles of seacoal miners in the Northumberland community, who gather the rocks from shallow shores instead of deep mines. The grueling process amazed the photographer; as he observed in his book Seacoal: “The beach beneath me was full of activity with horses and carts backed into the sea. Men were standing in the sea next to the carts, using small wire nets attached to poles to fish out the coal from the water beneath them. The place confounded time; here the Middle Ages and the twentieth century intertwined.” Look at some of the images from the book below.

Brian sorting coal (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Brian sorting coal (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Chris Killip
Children with homemade tent (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Children with homemade tent (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Chris Killip
Cookie in the snow (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Cookie in the snow (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Chris Killip
Critch in the water (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Critch in the water (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Chris Killip
Rocker and rosie in the cart (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Rocker and rosie in the cart (Seacoal by Chris Killip, published by Steidl)
Chris Killip

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