America’s Jugular: The Upper Ohio Valley

Read Maren Miller’s interview with Doug Miller about his work here!

Doug Miller has been photographing the Ohio Valley for almost 50 years. The works in America’s Jugular: The Upper Ohio Valley have been selected from a massive archive that spans Miller’s entire adult life, from his first camera at age 17 to today.

Ohio exists more as myth than real place in the minds of most Americans outside the state. A symbolic middle: middle America, the middle class, The Heart of it All. But we see and hear little of its current reality.

Doug Miller photographs the Ohio Valley as witness to its complexity. What began as a photographic exploration of a beloved hometown has become a portrait of decline and contraction. With the slow but steady dismantling of protective tariffs and the introduction of free trade, Miller watched and documented the devolution of what was once one of the most productive and prosperous areas of the world into a land of abandoned mills and factories, gutted communities, and economic collapse. Against this backdrop there remains the natural glory of the valley itself, and the individuals committed to the region. These images show us the region as it truly is: a difficult and beautiful place.