After the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947, artist H. Andrew Freeth was commissioned to produce a series of portraits of the coal industry’s mineworkers. These portraits, titled ‘Pit Profiles’, were reproduced in Coal magazine between 1947-1952.
Freeth was keen to talk to the men about their home and worklife and interviews with them were included alongside the artwork. At the heart of his work was a desire to capture the very essence of a man’s character.