On the relationship to the miners

As I mentioned before, I kind of got the feeling then that I should continue photographing the miners, because eventually I knew they were going to be finished, deep mining in the valley would be finished. So, every opportunity I got -- vacation time -- if I took vacation time, I went in. Weekends, Saturdays, if they were in, I would go in. As I knew most of them personally, they were my age -- maybe a little older, a few years older -- but I knew them. My relationship with those miners was very close, so I could do anything. I could take any type of pictures. I could walk in on them anytime. They knew what I was doing. And that was a very great benefit to me, to get real pictures, not posed pictures -- but pictures of actual working conditions.