Earl Dotter (born July 24, 1943) is an American occupational photographer best known for documenting some of America's most dangerous jobs, including

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

, textile manufacturing, asbestos, emergency responders at the

World Trade Center site The World Trade Center site, often referred to as " Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north ...

, and healthcare workers during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. His work is included in the Smithsonian's

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

Education

Dotter graduated from San Jose State College in 1967. While attending he purchased a

Rolleiflex Rolleiflex is a long-running and diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei-Werke. History The "Rolleiflex" name is most commonly used to refer to Rollei's premier line of med ...

camera and started photographing the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. By 1968 Dotter entered the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The next year he became a

AmeriCorps VISTA AmeriCorps VISTA is a national service program designed to alleviate poverty. President John F. Kennedy originated the idea for VISTA, which was founded as Volunteers in Service to America in 1965, and incorporated into the AmeriCorps network of ...

volunteer.

Career

Dotter documented dangerous mine work and

black lung disease Black lung disease (BLD), also known as coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or simply black lung, is an occupational type of pneumoconiosis caused by long-term inhalation and deposition of coal dust in the lungs and the consequent lung tissue's react ...

for the

United Mine Workers of America The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the Unit ...

. Many labor unions and the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA; ) is a regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. The United States Congress established ...

have used his work. He has also participated in the

Great Labor Arts Exchange The Great Labor Arts Exchange is an annual arts festival in Silver Spring, Maryland, which celebrates the labor history of the United States as well as preserves, advances and promotes the culture of the American labor movement. In June 1979, Joe ...

. Dotter's photographs have been featured on the cover of

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...

and in

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...

. One of Dotter's photographs was used on social media without permission as part of

Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections The Russian government conducted Foreign electoral intervention, foreign electoral interference in the 2016 United States elections with the goals of sabotaging the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign, presidential campaign of Hillar ...

, according to the Mueller report. Dotter taught photography at Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy and has been a visiting scholar with the

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school at Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was named after Hong Kong entrepreneur Chan Tseng-hsi in 2014 following a US$350 ...

for 25 years. His photography archive is being acquired by

Duke University Libraries Duke University Libraries is the library system of Duke University, serving the university's students and faculty. The Libraries collectively hold some 6 million volumes. The collection contains 17.7 million manuscripts, 1.2 million public docum ...

' David M. Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscripts Library.

Personal life

Dotter's wife, Deborah Stern, is a labor lawyer. They have been married 37 years and have four children.

Awards

*1976:

National Magazine Award The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

for The United Mine Workers Journal, sponsored by

Columbia School of Journalism Columbia most often refers to: * Columbia (personification), the historical personification of the United States * Columbia University, a private university in New York City * Columbia Pictures, an American film studio owned by Sony Pictures * ...

*1988: Leica Medal of Excellence Award, National Capital Region *2001:

American Public Health Association The American Public Health Association (APHA) is a Washington, D.C.–based professional membership and advocacy organization for public health professionals in the United States. APHA is the largest professional organization of public health pr ...

’s Alice Hamilton Award *2015: Lifetime Achievement Award from New England College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine *2016:

Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is a nonprofit organization in the U.S. that helps to preventing asbestos exposure to eliminate asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma, and protecting asbestos victims' civil rights throug ...

’s Tribute of Inspiration Award

Bibliography

*''In Mine and Mill: A Photographic Portfolio of Coal Miners and Textile Workers.'' 1980. Pilgrim Press. *''The Quiet Sickness: A Photographic Chronicle of Hazardous Work in America.'' 1998. *''Life’s Work: A 50 Year Photographic Chronicle of Working in the U.S.A.'' 2018. Published by the

American Industrial Hygiene Association The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is a 501(c)6 non-profit organization, whose mission is "Creating knowledge to protect worker health." The American Industrial Hygiene Association works to provide information and resources to In ...

. *''Digging Our Own Graves: Coal Miners and the Struggle over Black Lung Disease.'' 2020. Written by Barbara Ellen Smith. Haymarket Books.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dotter, Earl Living people 1943 births American photojournalists 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American photographers Photographers from Philadelphia Photographers from Pennsylvania San Jose State University alumni