"Leroy Snyder Coal Co., Donaldson, Schuykill County"

Pennsylvania

offset print (postcard)

signed on recto by Hilla Becher

The photographs of the winding towers were taken at various locations in Pennsylvania, mostly in Schuylkill County, the most important anthracite coal mining region in the USA. The fragile structures of the winding towers appear scanty and awkwardly put together. The materials seem haphazardly put together.
In fact, these winding towers are temporary workplaces built by unemployed miners over abandoned coal seams. They were operated illegally by laid-off miners from the 1920s onwards during the Great Depression.
As with other photographs of similar buildings, Bernd and Hilla Becher tried to capture the sculptural character of the structures. This was always done under the same conditions, such as diffuse light, the same perspective and the same framing.
(Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen)

The picture is a postcard signed by Hilla Becher around 2010 for a Munich collector as a favor. The original silver gelatine prints from the “Fördertürme” series measure 55x45 cm. The image on the postcard was incorrectly labeled “Erdmann Brothers Coal Co., Valley View”. In fact, however, the winding tower depicted is that of the “Leroy Snyder Coal Co., Donaldson, Schuykill County”.