Exhibition dates: 23rd May – 23rd August, 2026

C0-curators: Diane Waggoner, curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Art and Kristen Gaylord, Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts at Milwaukee Art Museum

Zig Jackson, Rising Buffalo (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara) (b. 1957)
Indian Man at Kennecott Copper Mine, Tooele, Utah
2004
Gelatin silver print
Image: 33.0 x 40.6cm (13 x 16 in.)
Sheet: 40.6 x 50.8cm (16 x 20 in.)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Accessions Committee purchase, by exchange, through a gift of Michael D. Abrams
© Zig Jackson
Photo: Tenari Tuatagaloa

The rape of the earth

Mining helps improve our lives in so many ways and yet the harm it causes the planet, the severe environmental degradation, indigenous dispossession and systemic violence associated with resource extraction is undeniable.

The phrase “the rape of the earth” “characterises the literal carving up of the landscape. Large-scale operations – such as open-cut mining – strip topsoil, destroy ecosystems, pollute water tables, and leave irreversible physical scars on the terrain. Indigenous groups, such as the Sámi feminists against mining in Sábme, use the phrase to describe how mining fractures the sacred, interdependent web of connection between land, humans, and nonhuman lifeworlds.” (Google AI)

The interdependent web of connection between land, humans and nonhuman lifeworlds running beneath the surface, hidden from view, that life force of the world and the cosmos that is so violently ruptured in the mining process.

While the photographs in this posting portray the cultures and communities associated with mining, the industries, towns and cities, the people and the landscapes what they don’t account for is the ongoing physical, psychological and emotional scars that the results of mining leave behind. Scars that riddle the earth’s surface as much as they do the minds of the people that love this planet as a holistic entity. You only have to look at Zig Jackson, Rising Buffalo’s photograph Indian Man at Kennecott Copper Mine, Tooele, Utah (2004, above) to understand what I mean.

When it’s all too late only then will we have realised what we have lost.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

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Many thankx to the National Gallery of Art, Washington for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Unknown photographer (American)
Portrait of a California gold miner with pick and shovel
c. 1855
Quarter-plate daguerreotype
Plate (quarter): 4 1/4 x 3 1/4 in. (10.8 x 8.26cm)
Case (tray): 4 11/16 x 3 5/8 x 3/8 in. (11.91 x 9.22 x 0.97cm)
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Gift of the Hall Family Foundation

Environmental impacts of mining

The environmental impacts of mining are significant. Establishing mining sites requires an enormous amount of construction, which often causes deforestation and loss of wildlife habitats and biodiversity.

Surface mines, which require the use of explosives and heavy machinery to expose materials near the earth’s surface, cause massive canyon-sized holes in the land and lead to soil erosion and degradation around surrounding areas. Mountaintop removal mining, a method of coal mining, uses explosives to blast the entire top of a mountain.

Surface mines create a huge amount of waste materials. Mines release harmful substances into the air and water, and can cause serious health issues if inhaled or consumed. Mines also release acidic water, which can kill marine life and make freshwater unsuitable for drinking. Underground mining produces fewer waste materials than surface mines, but they are risky for mine workers.

The mining industry emits carbon via transportation and energy use, and produces fossil fuels – the largest source of carbon emissions in the world.

Even after mines are decommissioned, they continue to impact the environment. Acid mine drainage occurs after mines have been abandoned, and results in heavy metals entering water systems and harming the plants, animals and humans that consume it.

Social impacts of mining

Mining can create employment opportunities, boost economies and provide investment for local development projects. However, mining operations that don’t respect human rights or protect the environment can cause significant harm to surrounding communities.

Anonymous. “Resource wealth, poverty, and environmental impact in mining,” on the Oxfam Australia website, 1 July 2025 [Online] Cited 18/08/2026

American 19th Century
Shipping Oil – Story Farm
1860s-1870s
Stereoscopic albumen silver print
Image/sheet: 7.94 × 14.92cm (3 1/8 × 5 7/8 in.)
Mount: 8.73 × 17.46cm (3 7/16 × 6 7/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon
Public domain

James F. Ryder (American, 1826-1904)
Atlantic & Great Western Railway
1862
Albumen print
Image/sheet: 18.8 x 23.7cm (7 3/8 x 9 5/16 in.)
Mount: 25.3 x 32.4cm (9 15/16 x 12 3/4 in.)
Mat: 14 x 18 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
Public domain

Thomas H. Johnson (American, b. 1821 – d. ?)
Gibson’s Breaker, Rushdale, Del. & Hudson Canal Co.,
c. 1863-1865
Albumen print
Image/sheet: 30.7 x 41cm (12 1/16 x 16 1/8 in.)
Mount: 44.3 x 53cm (17 7/16 x 20 7/8 in.)
Mat: 20 x 26 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
Public domain

Thomas H. Johnson (American, b. 1821 - d. ?) 'Birdsey Breaker, Rushdale, Del. & Hudson Canal Co.,' 1863-1865

Thomas H. Johnson (American, b. 1821 – d. ?)
Birdsey Breaker, Archbald, Del. & Hudson Canal Co.,
1863-1865
Albumen print
Image/sheet: 30.6 x 40.8cm (12 1/16 x 16 1/16 in.)
Mount: 45.4 x 55.6cm (17 7/8 x 21 7/8 in.)
Mat: 20 x 26 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
Public domain

Andrew Joseph Russell (American, 1829-1902)
Valley of Bitter Creek from Coal Mine
1867-1869
Albumen silver print
22.86 x 29.53cm (9 x 11 5/8 in.)
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Gift of Union Pacific Railroad Company

Timothy H. O’Sullivan (American born Ireland, 1840-1882)
Savage Mine, Curtis Shaft, Virginia City, Nevada
1868
albumen silver print
Image: 14.45 x 19.53cm (5 11/16 x 7 11/16 in.)
Sheet: 19.53 x 26.83cm (7 11/16 x 10 9/16 in.)
Mount: 31.75 x 37.78cm (12 1/2 x 14 7/8 in.)
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Timothy O’Sullivan photographed men preparing to descend 900 feet into the mine.

Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American born Ireland, 1840-1882) 'Comstock Mine, Virginia City, Nevada 1868 Comstock Mine, Virginia City, Nevada' 1868

Timothy H. O’Sullivan (American born Ireland, 1840-1882)
Comstock Mine, Virginia City, Nevada
1868
Albumen print
Image: 18.89 x 13.49cm (7 7/16 x 5 5/16 in.)
Sheet: 18.26 x 26.99cm (7 3/16 x 10 5/8 in.)
Mount: 31.59 x 37.31cm (12 7/16 x 14 11/16 in.)
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

O’Sullivan used a magnesium flash to illuminate a miner wielding an axe underground.

Thomas Houseworth (American, 1828-1916)
Hydraulic Mining – Behind the Pipes, in the Kennebunk Claim, Birchville, Nevada County
c. 1868-1869
Stereoscopic albumen prints
Image: 7.9 x 20.6cm (3 1/8 x 8 1/8 in.)
Sheet: 8.9 x 17.5cm (3 1/2 x 6 7/8 in.)
Wikipedia Commons Public domain

B.F. Childs (American, 1841-1921)
New York, Iron Mine [Michigan]
c. 1871-1876
Stereoscopic albumen print
Image: 7.9 x 15.9cm (3 1/8 x 6 1/4 in.)
Sheet: 8.7 x 17.5cm (3 7/16 x 6 7/8 in.)
Collection of Leonard A. Walle

Brainard F. Childs photographed a man outside an iron mine in Michigan. He’s dwarfed by its dark and cavernous entrance.

Brainard Fermont Childs (1841-1921) was an American 19th-century photographer best known for his studio portraits and stereoviews documenting the Great Lakes region, particularly Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Operating the Child’s Art Gallery in Marquette, Michigan, he captured extensive regional landscapes, scenes of early mining and shipping on Lake Superior, and local Ojibwe life. Today, many of his surviving albumen prints and glass-plate negatives are preserved in historical collections, including the British Museum.

Google AI

B.F. Childs (American, 1841-1921)
Down the Franklin Tramroad
c. 1867-1868
Stereoscopic albumen prints
Image: 7.5 x 16.2cm (2 15/16 x 6 3/8 in.)
Sheet: 8.3 x 17.2cm (3 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.)
Collection of Leonard A. Walle

Dependent on precious metals from its inception, photography has always been intertwined with the natural resources that are fundamental to modern industrialised life. Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography is the first exhibition to exclusively examine how photographers from the mid-19th century to today have powerfully captured the effects of resource extraction on the land and communities of the United States. Featuring some 150 photographs that span 185 years, this exhibition focuses especially on the subterranean removal of the minerals and fossil fuels that power this country’s economy and industry. Together, these works demonstrate how photographers have drawn on changing technology and unique visual strategies to rise to the challenge of picturing these colossal industries.

Made for a variety of purposes, ranging from commercial boosterism and celebration of technical advancement to social documentation and community activism, the pictures in the exhibition shed light on how photography has revealed the costs of extraction and who benefits from its success. Divided into six broad, chronological sections that contextualise the complex history of photography and extraction, from daguerreotypes of the Gold Rush to large-scale, immersive photographs made in the last decade, Beneath the Surface highlights how artists have used photography to explore the relationship between extraction, society, and the environment.

This exhibition is curated by Diane Waggoner, curator of photographs, National Gallery of Art, and Kristen Gaylord, Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts, Milwaukee Art Museum.

The exhibition is organised by the National Gallery of Art, in collaboration with the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

Text from the National Gallery of Art website

Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829-1916)
Malakoff Diggins, North Bloomfield, Nevada County [California]
1871
Albumen print
Image: 41.59 x 54.61cm (16 3/8 x 21 1/2 in.)
Mount: 55.88 x 71.12cm (22 x 28 in.)
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

F. Jay Haynes (American, 1853-1921)
Granite Silver Mine, Montana
c. 1880
Albumen print
Image: 42.7 x 54.5cm (16 13/16 x 21 7/16 in.)
Sheet: 43 x 54.9cm (16 15/16 x 21 5/8 in.)
Mat: 22 x 28 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of the UBS Art Collection
Public domain

Originally a studio photographer from the North Dakota Territory, Haynes spent most of his career documenting in pictures the development of the western territories. Commissioned in 1876 to make views along the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad, he traveled through the West until 1905, working in a railroad car equipped as both gallery and darkroom. Besides photographing spectacular views of natural scenery, Haynes produced an extensive record of the modification of the landscape by raliroad and industry.

On an 1881 trip to the newly created Yellowstone Park, via the new line of his railroad company employer, Haynes decided to pursue a commercial concession as park photographer. In 1884 he opened a studio and photography gallery in Yellowstone, selling to tourists prints of the park’s natural wonders, such as the Lone Star Geyser Cone. For more than thirty years Haynes served as the official photographer of Yellowstone National Park.

Merry A. Foresta American Photographs: The First Century (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996) on the Smithsonian American Art Museum website Nd [Online] Cited 21/07/2026. Used under fair use conditions for the purposes of education and research

West & Waddell (American, Bradford, Pennsylvania, active 1880s)
Flowing Well
1880s
Stereoscopic albumen silver prints
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon
Public domain

Photographs of oil derricks document the rush that followed the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859.

William H. Rau (American, 1855-1920)
South Plainfield Coal Storage, capacity 100,000 tons
c. 1890
Albumen print
Image: 43.5 x 52.1cm (17 1/8 x 20 1/2 in.)
Collection of Paul Sack

Lewis Wickes Hine (American, 1874-1940)
“A lonely job.” Willie Bryden, a nipper, 13 yrs old, Pittston, Pa.,
1911
Gelatin silver print
Image: 11.43 x 13.49cm (4 1/2 x 5 5/16 in.)
Milwaukee Art Museum
Gift of Robert Mann

Frank J. Schlueter (American, 1874-1972)
Goose Creek, Tex. oil field
1917
Gelatin silver print, panorama
Sheet: 19.6 x 150.3cm (7 11/16 x 59 3/16 in.)
Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
Public domain

Schlueter photographed the quickly growing Houston region in the first half of the twentieth century, retiring in 1964. Schlueter’s work was used by early oil producers in the region to document and promote their work

The National Gallery of Art presents Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography, the first exhibition to exclusively examine the relationship between resource extraction and American photography throughout its history. Spanning nearly 200 years, the exhibition examines how photographers have approached the challenge of capturing the significant but often hidden processes and impacts of the extraction of minerals, coal, and fossil fuels and its associated industries.

Featuring 150 photographs by more than 100 artists, including Richard Avedon, Walker Evans, Lewis Hine, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dorothea Lange, David Maisel, Gordon Parks, Mitch Epstein, Carleton Watkins, Will Wilson, and more, Beneath the Surface reveals how generations of photographers have utilised evolving technologies and distinctive visual strategies to document the industries that power and shape modern life. Beneath the Surface will be on view at the National Gallery of Art from May 23 to August 23, 2026, before travelling to the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wisconsin and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.

“As a defining visual medium of our modern age, photography is an essential tool to capture and communicate our shared history,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art. “Beneath the Surface brings together a dynamic range of works to shed light on the medium’s intersections with a shaping force in American history and industry.”

The featured works, many of which are drawn from the National Gallery’s significant photography collection, span early daguerreotypes from the time of the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s to pictures of rapid industrialisation in the 20th century and contemporary photographs produced at an immense scale. This expansive selection traces the layered history of extraction and how artists have used photography as a lens through which to communicate the industry’s relationship with society and the natural world.

“Photography itself is dependent on precious metals for its very existence, from the light sensitivity of silver in early processes to the copper of contemporary digital-camera batteries. At the same time, it has been the principal visual medium employed to depict extractive industries, evolving alongside the expansion of mining on an industrial scale since the 19th century,” said Diane Waggoner, co-curator of the exhibition and curator of photographs at the National Gallery of Art. “Beneath the Surface unites photographs made for a variety of purposes, from explicitly promotional and commercial uses to documentation efforts and socially engaged activism, shedding light on both the rewards and costs of resource extraction.”

The exhibition orients visitors with an introductory gallery displaying contemporary work, foregrounding themes relevant to the current moment and providing a critical framework for understanding the six broad, chronological sections that follow. Viewers will encounter works not only by historical photographers recognised for their work in capturing mining, drilling, and industrial subjects, such as Carleton Watkins, Margaret Bourke-White, Marion Post Wolcott, and Bernd and Hilla Becher, but also by less expected practitioners Florence Kemmler, Alma Lavenson, and Mary Morris. The exhibition includes works by contemporary photographers Edward Burtynsky, Binh Danh, Terry Evans, Victoria Sambunaris, and Cara Romero, among others.

“For almost two centuries photographers have played a central role in public understanding of resource extraction, drawing on a succession of technologies and strategies to capture activities that enable modern life but resist portrayal,” said Kristen Gaylord, co-curator of the exhibition and Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts at Milwaukee Art Museum. “This exhibition demonstrates how, time and again, photographers have creatively pushed against the medium’s boundaries in a quest to impart the enormity of the country’s extractive activities and their effects.”

Beneath the Surface centres on the challenges artists face in capturing the colossal scale of extraction and its far-reaching impacts on communities and the environment. It also reveals the inventive strategies they have employed to depict this subject. The works on view reflect the full breadth of the medium, spanning landscapes, portraits of workers and panoramas of affected communities, photobooks, aerial imagery, analog and digital collage, camera-less photography, historical processes, narrative and performance work, and pictures that otherwise harness photography to communicate the scope of these industries.

Press release from the National Gallery of Art

Florence Kemmler (American, 1900-1972)
Oil Drums
c. 1929
Chlorobromide print
Image: 26.67 x 34.61cm (10 1/2 x 13 5/8 in.)
Mat: 18 x 22 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund

The husband-and-wife team of Roland E. Schneider (1884-1934), and Florence B. Kemmler (1900-1972), were internationally exhibited salon photographers whose beautifully rendered works straddle both Pictorialist and modernist sensibilities. The San Diego couple worked together using the same 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Graflex cameras and identical printing and mounting techniques. Nearly all their photographs were contact printed on warm, brownish black-toned chlorobromide papers.

Text from the Joseph Bellow Gallery website

Alma Lavenson (American, 1897-1989)
Tanks, Standard Oil Company
1931
Gelatin silver print
Sheet (trimmed to image): 24 x 18.4cm (9 7/16 x 7 1/4 in.)
Mat: 20 x 16 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
The Marvin Breckinridge Patterson Fund for Photography

In 1930 she was introduced to Adams, Cunningham and Weston by art collector Albert Bender. Bender also wrote Lavenson a letter of introduction to give to Edward Weston. Two years later she was invited to participate in the famous Group f/64 show at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, although there is some uncertainty about whether she should actually be called a “member” of Group f/64, given her association with Pictorialism. The announcement for the show at the de Young Museum listed seven photographers in Group f/64 and said “From time to time various other photographers will be asked to display their work with Group f/64. Those invited for the first showing are: Preston Holder, Consuelo Kanaga, Alma Lavenson, Brett Weston.” However, in 1934 the group posted a notice in Camera Craft magazine that said “The F:64 group includes in its membership such well known names as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke, John Paul Edwards, Imogene [sic] Cunningham, Consuela [sic] Kanaga and several others.” Lavenson was not mentioned by name in that notice, but her name is always listed as being associated with the group because of her place in the first exhibition. She was included in an exhibition of photography “by members and associates of Group f.64” held at Gallery 210, Lucas Hall, University of Missouri, St. Louis, Apr. 3-30, 1978.

Text from the Wikipedia website

Walker Evans (American, 1903-1975)
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
1936
Gelatin silver print mounted on paperboard
Sheet (trimmed to image): 19 x 23.8cm (7 1/2 x 9 3/8 in.)
Support: 45.7 x 37.6cm (18 x 14 13/16 in.)
Mat: 16 x 20 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Mary and David Robinson

In 1936, Walker Evans captured several iconic photographs in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, during his landmark documentary work for the Resettlement Administration and Farm Security Administration. His lens famously depicted the stark juxtapositions of the city’s industrial boom, highlighting steel mills looming over residential neighbourhoods and graveyards, as well as scenes of local auto graveyards.

Arthur Rothstein (American, 1915-1985)
Copper Pit, Ruth, Nevada
1940
Gelatin silver print
Image: 24.13 x 18.73cm (9 1/2 x 7 3/8 in.)
Sheet: 25.4 x 20.32cm (10 x 8 in.)
Mat: 50.8 x 40.64cm (20 x 16 in.)
Black Dog Collection

Born in New York City in 1915, Arthur Rothstein showed an early interest in photography. While studying at Columbia University, he met economics instructor Roy Stryker, who would later establish the photographic section of the Resettlement Administration (later the Farm Security Administration) in Washington, DC. Appreciating Rothstein’s technical proficiency and enthusiasm for photography, Stryker hired him in 1935 as the first staff photographer for the FSA. Praised for the directness and immediacy of his imagery, Rothstein produced notable photographic series on farming communities in the Midwestern Dust Bowl. After leaving the FSA in 1940, Rothstein took a position as photographer for Look magazine; he remained there until 1971, ultimately serving as the magazine’s director of photography.

Text from the International Center of Photography website

Russell Lee (American, 1903-1986)
Butte, Montana. Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Train of fifty-ton cars of copper ore leaving mines at Butte for smelter at Anaconda Montana
1942
Gelatin silver print
Mount: 29.21 x 24.29cm (11 1/2 x 9 9/16 in.)
Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
Public domain

Gordon Parks (American, 1912-2006)
Crude oil, fuel oil, gas oil, range oil and gasoline pipelines leading from the waterfront to the Everett Refinery. Everett, Massachusetts, May 1944
c. 1944
Gelatin silver print
Sheet: 35.9 x 27.8cm (14 1/8 x 10 15/16 in.)
Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Courtesy of Exxon Mobil Corporation

Fons Ianelli (American, 1917-1988)
Jim Faye returning from the mines, Harlan County, Appalachia
1946
Gelatin silver print
Black Dog Collection
Courtesy Steven Kasher Gallery
© Fons Ianelli

Andreas Feininger (American, 1906-1999)
Oil Derricks on Signal Hall, California
1948
Gelatin silver print
Image: 20.32 x 25.08cm (8 x 9 7/8 in.)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Gift of the Feininger Family
© Estate of Andreas Feininger

Arthur Grace (American, b. 1947)
Coal Miners’ Strike, Kelley’s Creek Hollow, West Virginia
December 1977
Gelatin silver print
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
© Arthur Grace

Milton Rogovin (American, 1909-2011)
Doris McKinney, Republic Steel
1978-1979
Gelatin silver print
Image: 18.3 x 17cm (7 3/16 x 6 11/16 in.)
Sheet: 25.3 x 20.3cm (9 15/16 x 8 in.)
Mat: 14 x 16 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Pierre Cremieux and Denise Jarvinen
© 2025, the Estate of Milton Rogovin

Milton Rogovin (American, 1909-2011)
Doris McKinney with Her Two Sons, Republic Steel
1987
Gelatin silver print
Image: 18.1 x 17.7cm (7 1/8 x 6 15/16 in.)
Sheet: 25.2 x 20.3cm (9 15/16 x 8 in.)
Mat: 14 x 16 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Pierre Cremieux and Denise Jarvinen

Richard Avedon (American, 1923-2004)
Tom Stroud, oil field worker, Velma, Oklahoma, 6/12/80
1980
Gelatin silver print
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
© The Richard Avedon Foundation

Emmet Gowin (American, b. 1941)
Mining Exploration near Carson City, Nevada
1988
Gelatin silver print
Image: 24.5 x 25cm (9 5/8 x 9 13/16 in.)
Sheet: 27.7 x 35.5cm (10 7/8 x 14 in.)
Mat: 16 x 18 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Jane P. Watkins

Photographing American Mining and Energy

Elizabeth Fortune

For nearly two centuries, American photography and the mining of valuable natural resources have been deeply intertwined.

Introduced in 1839, photography premiered less than a decade before successive metal mining booms transformed the landscape and demographics of the American West. Emerging extractive industries hired photographers to promote their operations and attract investors and workers.

Since photography’s inception, artists have used a range of techniques and formats to depict resource extraction like coal mining and oil drilling, which often occurs in remote locations, sometimes underground. Their aims and attitudes range from enthusiastic boosterism to impassioned critique. Together, these photographers’ works unearth and make visible the history of industrial mining and its continued impact on our everyday lives and the American landscape.

Daguerreotypes

After the 1848 discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California, hundreds of thousands of aspiring miners flocked to the West Coast. Posed with tools of his trade, this miner was one of many who sat for a daguerreotype to memorialise their quest for precious metals.

The mining of silver, copper, and mercury was essential for the creation of daguerreotypes: the process produces a unique image on a highly polished silver-coated copper plate.

Stereographs

Photographers took advantage of the stereograph to make immersive scenes of resource extraction. A popular photographic format from the mid-1850s to the early 1900s, the stereograph features two pictures of the same subject taken about 2 1/2 inches apart, roughly the distance between our eyes. When seen through a stereoscope viewer, the two pictures appear to combine into a three-dimensional image (the equivalent of early 3D glasses).

Photographers were dispatched across the country and American territories to document places of interest. Sites of resource extraction were a particular draw. The discovery and mining of oil, gold, silver, and other materials excited many with the promise of prosperity and beckoned fortune seekers to these burgeoning industries.

Commissions and Surveys

Mining companies, as well as related businesses like railroads, commissioned early photographers to document industrial infrastructure as a way to mark technological advancements and to attract investors.

The Delaware and Hudson Railroad and Canal Company hired Thomas H. Johnson to photograph the expansion of their coal mining operations in northeastern Pennsylvania These “breakers” broke coal into fragments and sorted them by size.

Government-sponsored surveys presented other opportunities for nineteenth-century photographers to travel across the country and document mining sites. While on a geological survey in 1868, Timothy O’Sullivan photographed silver mining at the Comstock Lode in Nevada. There, he produced some of the first subterranean photographs.

Panoramas

The enormous scale demanded by resource extraction calls for a grand mode of representation. The panorama, derived from the Greek words for “complete” and “view,” is an ideal format. Its size and breadth can accommodate the vastness of industrial enterprises.

Frank Schlueter’s 1917 panoramic photograph, taken at Goose Creek, Texas, captures men and horses working alongside huge oil derricks, some so tall they extend beyond the picture frame. In 1901, oil was discovered at Spindletop along the Gulf Coast of Texas, which ushered in the modern petroleum industry and the Texas oil boom. Seeking business as a photographer, Schlueter opened a nearby studio and began accepting commissions for pictures of oil fields.

A century later, Indigenous photographer Lewis deSoto (Cahuilla) used the panoramic format to show power generation in California. Here, a picturesque coastline is dotted with palm trees and people enjoying the sunny Southern California day. In the distance rises the Encina Power Station, which permanently closed in 2018. The panorama’s wide vista reveals the looming presence of industry in even the most scenic of places.

The title refers to Carlsbad, the current name of the city where the beach is located, and Payómkawichum, the name Native Americans of the area call themselves. deSoto invokes the Indigenous name to link industrial power generation with the ancestral power imbued in the land.

Modernist Forms

Modernist photographers, with their interest in abstract shapes and daring camera angles, found a fitting subject in the sharp geometric forms of industrial facilities and machinery.

In the late 1920s, Margaret Bourke-White spent several months photographing inside the Otis Steel Company in Cleveland, Ohio. She called the evenings spent at the factory “a photographic paradise.” Bourke-White’s picture of glowing molten metal celebrates what she deemed the “beauty waiting to be discovered” at the plant.

In 1944, Gordon Parks joined a group of photographers hired by Standard Oil New Jersey to promote the company’s role in supporting the war effort. In Parks’s dynamic composition, orderly rows of cylindrical pipes converge at the horizon line, carrying oil to the Everett Finery in Massachusetts. Plumes of white steam hover over the refinery, suggesting a constant churn of manpower and machinery.

Aerial Views

Adopting a bird’s-eye view has allowed photographers to record the extent of resource extraction and the way it has marked our landscape. Photographers can also bypass access restrictions to industrial sites by flying overhead with a plane or drone. From the sky, a paradox emerges: although we can see more from a distance, the elevation skews scale and at times heightens the aesthetic appeal of earthbound places.

Taken from a helicopter, Emmet Gowin’s picture of a mining exploration near Carson City, Nevada, reveals an elaborate pattern of topographical scars. Gowin acknowledged the distorting effect of viewing industrial sites from the sky, remarking, “From the air it seemed like everything I was seeing was miraculous.”

Photographer Will Wilson (Diné) used a drone to capture this aerial view of pearl and copper hued remediation ponds that hold residual waste from uranium mining. Located in northwest New Mexico on the lands of the Navajo Nation, Church Rock Mill is the site of the largest radioactive spill in American history. The radioactive waste poses risks to nearby communities and ecosystems. By surveilling the remediation ponds from above, Wilson calls attention to these hazardous sites.

Portraits

Pictures of laborers in extractive industries spotlight those who power our nation. Sometimes operating in high-risk environments, these workers feed important supply chains. Portrait photographers foreground the humanity of their subjects and individualise the massive workforce supporting our industrial economy.

From 1979 to 1985, Richard Avedon traveled across 17 American states to photograph working-class Americans for his portrait project In the American West. Coal miners and oil field workers were among his most frequent subjects. Avedon is known for his portraits of celebrities and politicians, but here he elevates each worker to a vaunted status.

Tom Stroud, an oil field worker from Velma, Oklahoma, stands before Avedon’s signature white backdrop and looks directly at the camera. His skin, clothing, and helmet are splotched with mud and oil (Avedon preferred to photograph subjects at the end of their shifts). The portrait’s large size – about five feet tall by four feet wide – gives monumental status to Stroud and his labor.

Large-Scale Color Photographs

At first glance, the tidy yards, pristine garden shed, and welcoming patio furniture form an idyllic suburban scene. But in the distance, massive smokestacks and a cooling tower overtake the hazy gray sky.

Mitch Epstein’s mammoth picture records the looming presence of the Amos Coal Power Plant in Raymond City, West Virginia. The exceptional size (62 x 80 inches) of Epstein’s composition places us within a serene neighbourhood dominated by the coal industry. Its monumental scale confronts us with the immensity of extractive operations and the impact these industries have on the lands and people of the United States.

Text from the National Gallery of Art website

In the Library: Photobooks and American Energy

This presentation draws from the National Gallery of Art Library collections. It looks at how artists use photobooks to reveal the impact of the energy industry on the American landscape and people.

In conjunction with Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography, the National Gallery of Art Library presents an installation of 25 books and 2 zines examining how photographers use photobooks to document the impact of energy extraction, production, and circulation on the American landscape and its communities.

The books and zines on view illustrate complex narratives about how America is powered today, revealing the visual strategies and design decisions contemporary photographers use to contextualise and share their work. In the library reading room adjacent to the exhibition area, additional photobooks are available for visitors to browse.

Books offer a different experience than seeing images on a wall or your social media feed. Complex stories are told when photos join text, other printed elements, and even the book binding. Come explore a wide-ranging selection of photobooks by contemporary photographers – then handle more examples in our reading room.

Curated by Yuri Long, special collections librarian at the National Gallery, this installation is on view from May 25 through August 21, 2026, in the East Building Library Atrium from 11.00 am to 4.30 pm, Monday through Friday, except federal holidays.

Text from the National Gallery of Art website

Mitch Epstein (American, b. 1952)
Amos Coal Power Plant, Raymond City, West Virginia 2004
2004, printed 2025
Inkjet print
Image/sheet: 157.48 x 203.2cm (62 x 80 in.)
Framed: 160.02 x 207.01 x 6.35cm (63 x 81 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of the artist
© Mitch Epstein

Victoria Sambunaris (American, b. 1964)
Untitled (Coaldale, Pennsylvania)
2007
Chromogenic print
Overall: 99.06 x 139.7cm (39 x 55 in.)
Mat: 41 x 57 in. (approx.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Lannan Foundation
© Victoria Sambunaris and Yancey Richardson Gallery

David Maisel (American, b. 1961) 'American Mine, Carlin, Nevada 1' 2007, printed 2024

LaToya Ruby Frazier (American, b. 1982)
U.S.S. Edgar Thomson Steel Works & Monongahela
2013
Gelatin silver print
Image/sheet: 121.29 x 151.77cm (47 3/4 x 59 3/4 in.)
Framed: 123.83 x 154.31 x 4.45cm (48 3/4 x 60 3/4 x 1 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
© LaToya Ruby Frazier

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi, b. 1977)
Oil Boom
2015, printed 2023
From the series Water Memories
inkjet print
Image: 101.6 x 100.33cm (40 x 39 1/2 in.)
Sheet: 111.76 x 110.49cm (44 x 43 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Funds from Renée Harbers Liddell
© Cara Romero. All rights reserved

Andrew Borowiec (American, b. 1956)
Blast Furnace, Cleveland
2016
Inkjet print
Image: 67.95 x 101.6cm (26 3/4 x 40 in.)
Sheet: 80.01 x 111.76cm (31 1/2 x 44 in.)
Mat: 32 3/4 x 46 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Charina Endowment Fund

Will Wilson (Diné) (b. 1969)
Shiprock Disposal Site, Shiprock, Navajo Nation, 36. 769690596277414 N / -108. 68547605691704 W
2020
Inkjet print
Image: 60.96 x 121.92cm (24 x 48 in.)
Sheet: 94.62 x 109.22cm (37 1/4 x 43 in.)
Back mat: 35 15/16 x 43 1/2 in.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Charina Endowment Fund in memory of Robert B. Menschel
Courtesy of the artist and www.dineconnect.org