Changing Perspectives: The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar
Jamey Stillings | United States
Organization: Jamey Stillings Photography, Inc.
Photographer: Jamey Stillings
Organization: Jamey Stillings Photography, Inc.
Exhibit Title: Changing Perspectives: The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar
Location: United States
Ivanpah Solar in the Mojave Desert of California, has made a compelling physical statement about our collective ability to shift from a society based on fossil fuels to one that embraces renewable energy production. In 2010, I initiated the Ivanpah project with a brief flight over its future site before construction commenced. In 2014, Ivanpah Solar became one of the world's largest concentrated solar thermal power plants. 173,500 heliostats (347,000 mirrors) focus the sun's energy toward three towers with the capacity to create 392 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 140,000 US homes.
Renewable energy projects such as Ivanpah Solar also raise challenging questions about land and resource use, exposing differing perspectives and contradictions within the environmental movement, local communities, the energy industry, and general public. While Ivanpah Solar is located in the American West, the issues encountered during its planning and construction are global issues and relevant to future environmentally-responsible energy projects.
THE EVOLUTION OF IVANPAH SOLAR is now a traveling exhibition and a book published by Steidl in 2015.
CHANGING PERSPECTIVES: RENEWABLE ENERGY & THE SHIFTING HUMAN LANDSCAPE is a long-term aerial and ground-based photography project documenting global renewable energy development.
New renewable energy capacity is being built around the world at a remarkable pace. Innovative ventures, in many countries, on several continents, reflect a growing international commitment to transform our cultures and economies away from dependence on fossil fuels toward a future that taps the amazing and sustainable potential of sun, wind, hydro and geothermal resources.
I am working to document a select group of these projects, while striving to reveal the challenges and compromises such transformations often entail. Since 2011, I have photographed extensively over the American West, Uruguay, Japan and Chile. The most recent body of work examines the growing nexus between renewable energy development and mining in the Atacama Desert of Chile. Atacama: Renewable Energy and Mining in the High Desert of Chile, my newest monograph, was published by Steidl in 2023.
By documenting significant developments in the global energy landscape, I seek to create imagery relevant both to our present-day collective conversation and to an eventual historical perspective of this era on Earth. I continually pursue opportunities to share this imagery with diverse national and international audiences through editorial print and online publications, exhibitions, interviews, public presentations, and books.
To support Changing Perspectives, please visit the Fractured Atlas website at https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/changing-perspectives.
To see additional work from Changing Perspectives, please visit: jameystillings.com
Jamey Stillings
2300 W. Alameda, A3
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507 USA
505-984-9999
jameystillings.com
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