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They are among the most powerful images of the South Wales coalfields ever caught on film.

And the iconic shots of post-war Wales captured by US photographer Bruce Davidson, who made his name with respected global images agency Magnum, are to be auctioned off later this month.

Now a visitor attraction with a thriving mature forest, 1960s Cwmcarn, in the Ebbw Valley, where Davidson shot his images, had been left scarred by the mining industry.

On the advice of the late Magnum photographer Philip Jones Griffiths, who was from Rhuddlan, North Wales, Davidson met the miner-turned-poet Horace Jones and the pair toured the South Wales coalfield together.

The pictures, expected to fetch £3,000 to £4,000 at a Sotheby’s Auction in New York, on September 30, were compiled by Davidson during 10 days in the region.

They are now seen by some as among the defining images of Wales of the 20th century.

But others have questioned whether Davidson was not simply looking for cliched imagery of Wales that would appeal to fellow Americans.

However Davidson, 81, who is best known for his slice-of-life images of Harlem, New York, has said his portfolio catalogues more than just the misery of life in the mines.

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He pointed to images such as the horse in the field and the girl playing and singing in the graveyard.

Speaking previously to the Western Mail he said: “There’s a lyrical beauty to it with the children playing in the cemetery and the pit ponies – the way they were let loose and would walk around the city. The pony is absolutely beautiful – it’s like a unicorn.”

The images being sold at Sotheby’s come from one of 75 separate portfolios that were made in the early ‘80s when they were exhibited at a gallery in Chicago.

The photographer’s original portfolio, known as Welsh Miners, features many more than the 10 images included in the Sotheby’s sale.

Davidson, whose shots include a mix of the engineered and the natural, admits he was inspired by the work of earlier photographers like Robert Frank and Eugene Smith.

They visited Wales in the 1950s and also took what went on to become iconic images of miners.