Matt Black
Title
Black Hills, SD, Year
Ranchland.
Carla Rae Marshall of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance photographed at her office.
Violet Never Miss a Shot, at her home on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The Dewey Burdock uranium mine was selected for expedited approvals in 2025 despite concerns of contamination in the historic uranium mining area in the Black Hills.
The Wharf Mine, operated by Coeur Mining, is the largest still operating gold and silver mine in South Dakota, generating 189 million dollars in revenue.
Helen Red Feather, 69, gathers medicinal herbs at home. She blames her stomach cancer on elevated Violet Never Miss a Shot, at her home on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Henry Red Cloud is a direct descendant of Chief Red Cloud and serves as Executive Director of Red Cloud Renewable on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
A window in the abandoned St Andrew’s Catholic Church, a historic mission on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Duane Two Bulls of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance explores Ihúnkiya Opá, or Valley of the Rising Sun, a cultural area in proximity to a proposed uranium mine.
Pictographs in Ihúnkiya Opá, or Valley of the Rising Sun, a cultural area in proximity to a proposed uranium mine.
Past uranium mining has led to elevated uranium levels in the White River.
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Black Hills Clean Water Alliance (BHCWA), founded in 2009 in Rapid City, South Dakota, is an environmental justice organization dedicated to protecting the Black Hills, especially its water, from destructive mining. With roughly twenty percent of the region under active mining claims, the Alliance maps proposed projects, monitors permits, files public records requests, and leads public education efforts. BHCWA also supports local and federal policy solutions, including a successful 2025 mineral withdrawal protecting more than 20,000 acres of critical watershed from future mining. Matt Black is a documentary photographer from California’s Central Valley whose work explores poverty, migration, and environmental crisis. A Magnum member since 2019, his American Geography project and other work have earned honors from the W. Eugene Smith Fund, RFK Awards, and National Geographic. In 2025, he was awarded the John D. MacArthur Fellowship in photography (the “Genius Award”).