We very rarely see the faces of the men and women working in the industries that quite literally power our economies, and perhaps even rarer is photojournalism documenting these laborers at work, especially those carrying out their jobs in remote, often dangerous places such as oil fields or deep underground.
While challenging to create, this sort of photojournalism does exist and, for the first time ever, a photographic exhibition dedicated to industrial natural resource extraction in the US will be displayed.
Organized by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Beneath the Surface will depict 185 years of these industries in some 150 images from 100 different photographers, with their subjects spanning black-faced coal miners to oil-drenched field operators.
Many of the featured images are drawn from the National Gallery’s collection, spanning early daguerreotypes taken during the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s to the unprecedented industrialization of the 20th century, with the works highlighting the range of visual strategies employed by photographers operating in trying conditions.
Among the more notable photographers included are Dorothea Lange (1895–1965), especially known for her iconic Depression-era image Migrant Mother; and pioneering ‘muckraker’ photographer Lewis Wickes Hine (1874–1940), notable for documenting young children working in harsh conditions during the Progressive Era.
While the exhibition shines a light on individuals who worked within US natural resource extraction industries and the photographers who immortalized them, it also reveals the complex industrial processes involved in these lines of work — processes, ironically, needed in order for cameras to be produced.
Beneath the Surface is free to enter and will be on view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, from May 23 - August 23, 2026. The exhibition then moves to the Milwaukee Art Museum from October 23, 2026 - January 18, 2027, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art from February 15 - May 9, 2027.
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