mine

[Alan Sondheim]

mine

http://www.asondheim.org/mine.mov

short sequence of west virginia mine bldgs. i'm embarrassed about these, i
didn't do anything, just photograph them for whatever purpose, i'm not yet
sure, i'm sure there's a background in the foreground somewhere, i'm not
there yet, i've just been here a few days, but i've been in coal all my
life, well that's not true, but i was raised in the anthracite district,
well this is bituminous, still these resonate, heavily reduced in size,
the moire patterns and indecipherable signage are a guarantee, perhaps
these are a punctum in barthes' sense, i'm sure that's it, you're getting
an insight into me, i know you're not particularly interested, my family
wasn't a mining family, retail in a mining community, you'd hear the mine
whistles blow, read of the deaths and cave-ins, mine closings and every
day which mine would be operating when, the miners would check in and
always polish on the radio, but i'm not embarrassed about these, i found
them out, i framed and photographed with care, i'm certain of the reason,
there's a foreman in the background somewhere -


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