Collection of Amy and Tony D'Orazio. © David Maisel. Photo: Jaime Alvarez
Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography opens at its second venue at the Milwaukee Art Museum this October. Spanning 180 years of American photography, the exhibition highlights artists whose works center on unveiling American mining and drilling that powers modern life yet often remains invisible to the majority. Beneath the Surface's photographs reveal the transformed landscapes, affected communities, and laboring workers behind the technologies we use daily.
A photograph from David Maisel's American Mine series will be on display in the exhibition. In American Mine (2007-present), Maisel focused specifically on mines situated along the Carlin Trend in northeastern Nevada, the most prolific gold mining district in the Western Hemisphere. Maisel’s photographs chronicle the complex relationships between natural systems and human intervention, often focusing on the physical transformation of the landscape caused by industrial efforts. His aerial images of sites around the world initially appear abstract and painterly — offering detailed but open-ended visual information that operates as both documentary and metaphor, seducing viewers with a strange beauty that critics have dubbed “the apocalyptic sublime.”
Learn more at mam.org.
