I was inspired by the Appalachian miner's more than 100 years of collective struggle to make life better for themselves, their families and America's working people. I wanted to see  the American heartland and I wanted to pay homage to those who gave their sweat and blood to make America the most industrialized and energized nation in the world.

Builder Levy's 14 years of photographing Appalachian coal miners culminated in his book Images of Appalachian  Coalfields, with 93 duotones and a foreword by Cornell Capa (Temple University Press, 1989). A traveling exhibition of the photographs was shown at 22 museums  and galleries throughout the eastern United States. In1976, Levy published a portfolio, Life of the Appalachian Coal Miner, with 12 duotones and two essays by Walter Rosenblum and Paul Nyden, respectively.