In the summer of 1964, photographer William Gedney travelled to Leatherwood, Kentucky to visit to the Blue Diamond Mining camp. There he met Willie Cornett, a recently laid off coal miner. Willie and his wife Vivian were living in Leatherwood and raising their twelve young children. He stayed with the family for 11 days and before returning to New York. Over the years, they kept in touch by mail, William occasionally sent a cut of the money he made off photographs he took of them. In 1972, he returned to Leatherwood and again shot the Cornett boys and girls, all grown up.
