Miner underground, Virginia City, Nevada

Using burning magnesium tapers to provide "flash" light, O'Sullivan recorded the claustrophobic world of workers in the Gould & Curry and Savage mines on the Comstock Lode. High temperatures, poor air circulation and the constant risk of cave-ins were just a few of the dangers faced by these hardy men. O'Sullivan used his smaller format stereo camera in the mines to make negatives approximately 3-1/2-inches square. From these, he created enlarged negatives more than twice that size, from which these final prints were made. Enlarging in this period was technically difficult and thus rarely done. These prints by O'Sullivan are the finest examples of photographic enlarging from this era.