The artwork entitled “Coal Company Town in Jenkins,” created by artist Ben Shahn in 1935, belongs to the Social Realism art movement and falls under the genre of photography. The artwork vividly depicts a moment in time and serves as a poignant representation of the living conditions in coal mining towns during the early 20th century.
In the artwork, an array of modest, identical houses is shown, situated in a carefully ordered row along the slope of a hill. These structures, typical of company towns, are designed to house coal miners and their families. The modest architecture suggests the austere and utilitarian nature of their existence. The landscape around the houses is rugged, dominated by undulating hills, sparse vegetation, and a railway line cutting through the valley below. The painting’s black and white palette emphasizes the starkness of the setting, while the composition conveys both isolation and community. The overall atmosphere is one of resilience amidst adversity, encapsulating the social and economic reality faced by coal mining families in the mid-1930s.
