Plastic deformation of metal enhances the photoelectron emission producing so‐called exoelectrons In our experiments the metal surface is scanned by a small spot of ultraviolet light and the electron emission is recorded as a function of position of the light spot. Results for aluminum and steel demonstrate that fatigue deformation produces exoelectron emission after less than 1% of the fatigue life. The regions of emission are very localized; some are beyond the resolution of the apparatus (15 &mgr;m). The localized emission increases throughout the fatigue life, and failure finally occurs in the region of most intense emission. The regions of intense emission are attributed to the development and propagation of fatigue cracks.