Pennsylvania Anthracite Tipples

The series "Anthracite Mines in Pennsylvania" by Bernd and Hilla Becher stands in the context of a conceptual approach developed in the early 1960s involving concentration on a small number of prototypical motifs and a standardized recording procedure: the industrial structures—blast furnaces, gasometers, oil pumps, pitheads—of a specific region are systematically photographed under predefined conditions, such as diffuse, regular light, from a slightly raised position, mostly from a strictly frontal perspective. The pictures are then assembled into typologies. The comparison facilitated by this serial approach reveals the differences within the apparent uniformity. The anthracite mines vary, for example, according to the angle and depth of the underlying seam, the quality of the ground, and the angle of inclination caused by the gradual decay of the defunct technical constructions. The eighty black and white photographs in a uniform format capture traces of usage and destruction, testifying to the historicity of the pictured objects.