Davies, who was born in Sedgefield, County Durham, grew up in coal mining and farming communities, which influenced his interest in the interplay between industry and landscape. In this series, he focused on the remaining operational collieries, major opencast mines, and drift mines, as well as the practice of sea-coal gathering along the coastline. His photographs offer a comprehensive visual record of the coal industry’s impact on the Durham landscape, highlighting both the monumental infrastructure and the subtle imprints of mining activities on the environment.

Interested in visual stories about process, change, transformation, the work represented a shift for Davies into a detailed engagement with the industrial landscape. However, these photographs exemplify Davies’ ability to convey the close-knit relationship between industrial work and community life. The Durham Coalfield series not only documents the physical landscape but also reflects the social and cultural fabric of mining communities during a time of uncertainty for the industry and those who depended on it.

The works toured extensively during the Miners’ Strike, which began less than 10 months after the work's completion. The project was a collaboration with the writer Graeme Rigby and focused on the, then, 13 working collieries, major opencast mines and, to a lesser extent, the drift mines and seacoal gatherers. For Amber and Side the commissioning of this series formed part of a wider engagement with coalfield concerns in the build-up to the strike.

​John Davies, born in 1949 in Sedgefield, County Durham, is a British photographer renowned for his expansive black-and-white landscapes that document the evolving industrial and post-industrial environments of Britain. After studying photography at Nottingham's Trent Polytechnic, graduating in 1974, he initially focused on rural landscapes before turning his attention to urban settings in the early 1980s. His work often juxtaposes natural and industrial elements, providing a comprehensive perspective on the transformation of the British landscape.

Throughout his career, Davies has received numerous accolades, and his photographs have been exhibited internationally, including at prestigious institutions. Notably, he collaborated with the Amber Film & Photography Collective on multiple projects like Cumbrian Landscapes and For Druridge, creating work which reflected his commitment to documenting the interplay between human activity and the natural environment.

"I use the photographic process as a means of exploring the landscape and I am especially interested in the physical formations of the land and the way in which the forces of nature effect its shape." - John Davies