American industry will get its moment in the spotlight when The Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) presents an in-depth exploration next year. Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography will span nearly two centuries of American industry through an exhibit of around 150 photographs. Beneath the Surface will be on view at the Amon Carter Museum from February 14 through May 9, 2027.
Organized by the National Gallery of Art in collaboration with the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Carter, Beneath the Surface is the first exhibition to exclusively examine the relationship between resource extraction (mining, drilling and exploration) and American photography throughout the medium’s history. The exhibition traces how photographers have approached the challenge of capturing the processes and impacts of extracting minerals, coal, and fossil fuels, according to a release.
Technology, Industry, and Photography Collide
“Beneath the Surface continues the Carter’s commitment to exploring the many ways American artists have shaped our understanding of the world around us,” says Scott Wilcox, Interim Director of the Carter.
“This exhibition highlights the creativity and innovation of photographers across nearly two centuries while offering new perspectives on industries that have profoundly altered American life,” he says. “We are grateful to the National Gallery of Art for spearheading this exhibition and to the many artists and lenders whose work allows us to share these compelling images with our audiences.”
The exhibit will feature approximately 150 photographs by a range of artists. Among them are Richard Avedon, Mitch Epstein, Walker Evans, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Carleton Watkins, and Will Wilson. The works capture the California Gold Rush, the Industrial Age as well as contemporary works, drawn in part from the Carter’s reknown photography collection.
Beneath the Surface is as much about the artists as the images they captured. It reveals “how generations of photographers have utilized evolving technologies and distinctive visual strategies to document the industries that power and shape modern life.”
Extraction and The American Experience In Context
“Beneath the Surface brings together an extraordinary range of photographs that reflect both the history of the medium and its ongoing relevance today,” says Charles Wylie, Curator of Photographs at the Carter. “A unique aspect of the exhibition is the presence of numerous works drawn from the Carter’s collection, allowing our audiences to appreciate these multilayered views of American mining industries in new and intriguing contexts.”
The exhibit focuses on the challenges the artists faced in capturing “the colossal scale of extraction and its far-reaching impacts on communities and the environment. It also reveals the inventive strategies they employed to depict this subject.”
The works on view range in their medium from “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.”
The collection reveals how photographers have documented and interpreted extraction over time, offering insight into its impact on the environment, communities, and the broader American experience, they say. Beneath the Surface will debut at The Carter next February.