Images in struggle: Photographs of Colorado coal camps

Abstract

Visual images produced as elements of material culture constitute a remarkable and under‐utilized resource for sociological investigation. This investigation of historic photographs of Colorado coal‐mining communities develops methods to analyze photos as sociological data. The coal industry was the site of sometimes violent struggle between workers and management. The labor intensive nature of mining and its location in under populated areas led to the development of company towns. Miners homes became contested terrain. Cameras were employed to create images to correspond to existing beliefs, values, and ideological definitions. By carefully examining photographs of miners houses we discover new meanings of the social facts governing the coal‐miners’ world.