Twenty-one years ago, while I was freelancing and shooting photo assignments for National Geographic, a Denver friend and energy publisher, Don Hart, asked that I join him in partnership to start a magazine that would use my photographs to show, as Don described it, "the beauty of the oil and gas industry." In true industry fashion, Oil and Gas Investor was structured like an oil deal of the late '70s with each partner having an eighth share. In the summer of 1981 I went to North Dakota and took the photos for the magazine's premier issue and in August of that year, Investor joined the oil patch. Hart was right. The energy industry has a "beauty" in its hardy people and the places where they toil. The photos that follow reflect only a fraction of the situations I have seen and experienced in the 20 years I have been shooting the covers and cover stories for Investor, but they give a flavor of the tenacity and beauty of an industry. These photographs are dedicated to the tireless efforts of the men and women of the energy industry who work the frontiers of the world, 24 hours of every day, under extreme physical conditions, to bring oil and gas to a consuming world that demands, but seldom appreciates, their hard work.