Dance of the Flaming Coke. Pittsburgh, USA, 1955. W. Eugene Smith

Description

After W. Eugene Smith quit LIFE magazine in 1954, he shot more than 11,000 photographs of Pittsburgh from 1955-1957 for a book celebrating the city’s bicentennial. Smith documented every corner of this vibrant industrial metropolis — the most comprehensive visual chronicle ever made of an American city in motion. This striking image captures a steelworker tending production of coke, a fuel used to make molten iron. As Smith explained in the 1959 Popular Photography Annual: “Coke … is made from bituminous coal in long, narrow ovens … with openings on top aligned with railroad tracks. Cars drop the exact amount of coal into the ovens and men … follow the cars, pushing stray coal into the holes, dancing back from the flames that shoot out until they can get the lids back into place.” Smith’s son Kevin wrote: “Channeling an Impressionist painting, this photo casts a mystical glow over a very gritty process. It is my favorite Smith image.”