Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography

Kristen Gaylord, Herzfeld Curator of Photography and Media Arts, on the entangled relationship of photography and resource extraction.

While early Gold Rush prospectors panned for gold in riverbeds, by the time of this picture companies worked on an industrial scale, employing high-pressure hoses to erode the land in search of gold. Although faster, hydraulic mining also required much more infrastructure, and so in 1871 North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Co. needed marketing images to solicit foreign investment. The company commissioned Carleton Watkins, one of the era’s preeminent landscape photographers, to capture their largest hydraulic gold-mining operation, at Malakoff Diggins.

Watkins composed his photographs to highlight the company’s technological abilities and encourage financial confidence. Here, a water pipe rakes across the foreground near remnants of tree stumps and branches, reminders that this land was once forested. In the middle ground, water cannons with arcing jets sit below the cliffs they have carved out of the earth. Behind them, land as yet untouched by the mining industry rises to a hilltop, implying limitless nature that might similarly be converted into profit.

These pictures were praised by the industry as proof that photography was helpful to engineers and mining companies. Yet a few years later, photographs by John Todd were used against hydraulic mining, as part of a lawsuit brought by farmers whose downstream properties had been ruined by chemicals, debris, and sediment from Malakoff Diggins. The judge ruled in their favor, widely considered the first environmental law in California, revealing that pictures could be used both for and against the industry.

Every one of the 140 artworks in Beneath the Surface contains a story like this one. Together, they expose photography’s central role in shaping our understanding of resource extraction from the 19th century until today.

Learn more at mam.org/beneath-the-surface.

Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography

Opening Fri, Oct 23, 2026
Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts

Member Preview Day + Celebration
Thurs, Oct 22, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.
Open to all Members
Enjoy early access to the exhibition, followed by a special celebration featuring live music and a cash bar in Windhover Hall before hearing a preview of the exhibition at 6:15 p.m. in Lubar Auditorium at the Members’ Annual Meeting. RSVP at mam.org/reservations or 414-224-3284.