The assignment started off as a relatively simple and exciting task: Photographer Shanon Rice would head down to Pike County in Eastern Kentucky and grab a shot for the annual Appalachian Festival poster in 2006.
No problem.
A series of coal-mining disasters had brought the topic to the forefront of many American minds, and festival officials wanted to spotlight the profession in Kentucky for the event's new theme, "Mining our past: A tribute to coal miners."
The only thing was, though, that when Rice arrived more than 200 miles later, the miners asked her if she wanted to go underground.
"The next thing I know," she says, "it blossomed into a three-year project."
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