We were given brass name plates before we descended on a three minute elevator ride down a mine shaft. It forebode the danger ahead of us. Then we entered the bowels of the earth. I was working with my brother Mitchell Funk on a photography assignment for Fortune Magazine. Access to an underground coal mine is something that is available only to a few. Fortune Magazine was doing a story on Big Coal and their PR team in the Time Life Building could open just about any corporate portal. The Continental Coal Company mine near Carbondale in southern Illinois was the location. Mitchell wanted to get an establishment shot to show the scale and depth of the the space. He lined up eight workers each with respirators attached to their hip. At the end of the mine Mitchell positioned a digging machine and it punctuates the composition. This picture was taken 46 years ago and I remember being in the mine and assisting with production. What strikes me today about this picture is something other than a photo in a coal mine. The bigger idea here is that documentary photography does not necessarily the record the truth. In many cases it changes the truth. br We lit the mine shaft with five large strobe heads. The lighting changed what the scene actually looked like. br The space was small and claustrophobic. In fact was very dark and if not pitch black in many places. The miners all have lights on their helmets which was their main source of illumination. Clearly a photograph can document reality or it can change reality. The lighting had transformed a tight inky black coal mine interior into a spacious light blue chalky interior. One thing the photo does capture is the defiant expressions on the subjects face. br Mitchell Funk is a pioneer of " Color Photography" In 1970 he participated in one the first " Color Photography" shows at a major museum. Brooklyn Museum, show "Images en Couleur" . 1971 Included he was included in the visionary book "Frontiers of Photography" Time Life. Color ! American Photography Transformed. Amon Carter Museum. He has had more than 50 Photography Magazine Covers and has had covers on Newsweek, Fortune, New York Magazine and Life Magazine among others