“Images in Struggle: Photographs of Colorado Coal Camps.” Visual Sociology, (1994) Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 4-26

Published in Visual Sociology in 1994, this article presents a visual ethnography of the Colorado coal camps that were at the center of some of America’s most dramatic labor conflicts. Eric Margolis uses photographs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to document the physical landscapes, living conditions, and social dynamics of communities built around coal extraction.

The photographs examined in this study — drawn from company archives, union records, newspaper morgues, and private collections — reveal a world of stark contrasts: the orderly grid of company housing against the wild terrain of the Rocky Mountain foothills, the formality of posed group portraits against the chaos of strike violence, the pride of skilled miners against the vulnerability of families dependent on a single dangerous industry.

Margolis argues that these images are not mere illustrations of historical events but active participants in the struggles they depict. Photographs were used by mining companies to project an image of benevolent paternalism, by unions to document exploitation and mobilize support, and by newspapers to shape public opinion about labor conflict. Reading these competing visual narratives reveals the contested meanings of work, community, and power in the industrial West.

This article is part of Margolis’s extensive body of photographic research on Colorado coal mining, which has been recognized as a pioneering contribution to visual sociology and western labor history.