The Schmerling Documentary Photography website is produced by Mark Schmerling, a native of Pennsylvania and a member of the Guild of Professional Photographers. His purpose in doing documentary photography on mountaintop removal is to employ photography to help raise public awareness, create public outrage, and to pressure officials to act in the long-term interest of the public and environment. This website provides a wonderful display of Mark's photography in a slide show. His photography unveils the destruction mountaintop removals has produced in detail and through a personal, creative, and perspective eye. Many of his photos include the residents that live in these areas behind the backdrop of mountains that have been leveled. Mark's photography would be useful to a researcher because it visually allows the researcher to see how mountaintop removal is performed, and to see the aftermath of it. The photography also provides the researcher with a more personal perspective to the practice and how it affects the people who are surrounded by it on a daily basis.
Novack, David. Burning the Future: Coal in America. Retrieved June 5, 2008, from http://www.burningthefuture.org
David Novack is a Brooklyn filmmaker who directed and produced the Burning the Future: Coal in America documentary film. The film examines the explosive forces that have set in motion conflict between the coal industry and West Virginia residents. Confronted by the U.S.'s coal-based energy policy, local activists watch the nation praise coal without any regard to the devastation it causes. The film also documents the activists' fight for a cleaner, more environmentally-healthy way of life. The trailer for the film and more information about it can be found on the website. More information about David can be found on his Burning the Future blog. This film would be useful to a researcher because it provides an in-depth look at mountaintop removal from more of a political standpoint, and how much of a fight it really has been for both residents and activists to bring minor change to the issue. The film would allow the researcher to see the measures that can be taken and that have been taken to bring change, and also how responsive the government is to environmental and social issues.
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. Reclamation Galleries. Retrieved June 5, 2008, from http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/reclamation/index.html
The Ohio Environmental Coalition is an organized group of all the Appalachia-region groups against mountaintop removal. The website is a compilation of news and links advertising for all mountaintop removal issues and organizations. The website's photo gallery section features photography from a number of different sources. Each link directs the researcher to a different mountain location and the photography that was taken for that area. The photography is more in-depth and focused on revealing the structural damage to the mountains when leveling occurs. The photography featured on this website would be useful to a researcher because it does allow for the researcher to investigate mountaintop removal from an up-close visual perspective. The photos truly reveal what damage is caused to the mountains, and how permanent the damage is. For a researcher, these photos may shed light on more of the technical aspect of mountaintop removal and may trigger more of a geological land search.
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