America's Extraction: Photos Reveal Cost

An exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, "Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography," examines the profound history of resource extraction in the United States. The collection features approximately 150 works by over 100 artists, spanning 185 years, and will travel to Milwaukee and Fort Worth.

Co-curator Diane Waggoner emphasizes how extraction has shaped American landscapes, communities, and demographics. Photographers have documented these activities from their inception, capturing diverse forms of extraction from coal mining to oil drilling.

Early works include documentary photos and government surveys, such as Timothy H. O'Sullivan's 1868 images of the Comstock Lode. The exhibition also touches on the resource needs of photography itself, from silver for daguerreotypes to lithium and petroleum derivatives for digital technology.

Later 20th-century photography, like Lewis Hine's child labor images and Dorothea Lange's portraits of miners' daughters, shifted focus to social and labor issues. Contemporary works by artists such as Richard Avedon and Will Wilson reveal the ongoing environmental and social consequences.

Images by Robert Adams, David Maisel, and Edward Burtynsky powerfully depict environmental degradation from oil spills and toxic waste ponds. Carleton Watkins's 1871 photograph of hydraulic gold mining and Richard Misrach's 1998 image of Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" highlight the ecological costs over time.

The exhibition concludes by showing how these images powerfully evoke both the promise and peril of America's relationship with its natural resources.