Shooting Sinkholes.

The article focuses on Jonas N. T. Becker’s photographic series "Better or Equal Use" (2020–ongoing), which documents the environmental and social impacts of mountaintop removal mining and subsequent redevelopment projects in Appalachia under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). Becker highlights sites such as the United States Shooting Sinkholes Penitentiary Big Sandy, a prison built on a former mountaintop removal site that exemplifies environmental injustice by incarcerating mostly men of color on unstable ground. His work also captures redeveloped nature preserves formed from mine debris, emphasizing the ongoing cycles of extraction and exploitation affecting Appalachian communities and ecosystems. To underscore the material history of mining, Becker prints his photographs on paper made from ground coal, linking the medium to the subject matter and challenging traditional narratives of industrial progress and extraction.