150 photos depict 185 years of the US mining industry in world-first historical exhibition

Man covered in oil. — Tom Stroud, oil field worker, Velma, Oklahoma, 6/12/80 (Image credit: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas © The Richard Avedon Foundation)

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.

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Young men on trike holding a sign. — Coal Miners' Strike, Kelley’s Creek Hollow, West Virginia, December 1977(Image credit: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2009.2.9 © Arthur Grace)

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.

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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.

A man covered in coal soo.t — Jim Faye returning from the mines, Harlan County, Appalachia, 1946 (Image credit: Black Dog Collection Courtesy Steven Kasher Gallery © Fons Lanelli)

Old photo of man holding pick axe. — Portrait of a California gold miner with pick and shovel, c. 1855 (Image credit: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (Gift of the Hall Family Foundation) 2017.68.279)

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.

Coal miners underground. — Anthracite Coal Mine Near Pottsville, Pennsylvania, 1938 (Image credit: National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the UBS Art Collection, 2023.30.53 ©Jack Delano)

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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I’m a writer, journalist and photographer who joined Digital Camera World in 2026. I started out in editorial in 2021 and my words have spanned sustainability, careers advice, travel and tourism, and photography – the latter two being my passions.

I first picked up a camera in my early twenties having had an interest in photography from a young age. Since then, I’ve worked on a freelance basis, mostly internationally in the travel and tourism sector. You’ll usually find me out on a hike shooting landscapes and adventure shots in my free time.