
Test print on carbon tissue of Better or Equal Use, “Belcher Mountain,” work in progress.

(left) Active Mountaintop removal mining on Guyandotte Mountain, West Virginia.
(right) Red Onion State Prison supermax facility in Pound, VA built on former mining site

Former mining site redeveloped as a strip mall in Louisa, KY. (Research photograph, J. Becker)

Mount Olive Correctional Complex outside of Mount Olive, West Virginia, built on the former site of Bullpush Mountain. (Research photographs, J. Becker).

1lb of coal collected from each post-mining redevelopment site that will be used to create a photographic image depicting each site

1lb of coal collected from each post-mining redevelopment site that will be used to create a photographic image depicting each site

1lb of coal collected from each post-mining redevelopment site that will be used to create a photographic image depicting each site

1lb of coal collected from each post-mining redevelopment site that will be used to create a photographic image depicting each site

1lb of coal collected from each post-mining redevelopment site that will be used to create a photographic image depicting each site

1lb of coal collected from each post-mining redevelopment site that will be used to create a photographic image depicting each site

1lb of coal collected from each post-mining redevelopment site that will be used to create a photographic image depicting each site

Experiments testing chemistry and printing surfaces for the coal printing process.

Tests of the pigment and transfer process that I will adapt to use for coal printing process.
(left) trouble-shooting transfer process (right) the image developing in water.













Better or Equal Use is a series of photographs made from coal dust that depict former mining sites redeveloped under the Surface-Mining Reclamation Act of 1977 – so far including detention facilities, strip malls and golf courses. This congressional act mandates that after mining is compete, companies reinstate the façade of the mountain or redevelop the site for “better or equal use,” directly weighing the value of a mountain and surrounding communities against other industrial and commercial functions.