Atacama: Renewable Energy and Mining in the High Desert of Chile
Photographer: Jamey Stillings
Exhibit Title: Atacama: Renewable Energy and Mining in the High Desert of Chile
Location: Chile
This series examines the evolving nexus between renewable energy development and mining in Chile's Atacama Desert. It is a chapter of my long-term project, Changing Perspectives. I created this body of work in 2017 and 2022.
Chile is the world's leading copper exporter and the second-largest lithium producer. The diverse geography and geology of the Atacama Desert give it a unique set of attributes, offering excellent solar and wind potential. Since 2017, when I first photographed over the Atacama, the country has tripled its renewable energy capacity. New solar, wind, and storage projects supply electricity to the grid, transmit power to population centers in the South, provide electricity and solar thermal energy to mines, and reduce mining's dependence on fossil fuels. Chile's renewable energy development is now an example for other countries and mining operations worldwide, offering hope and inspiration. Thus, a growing dynamic between the extractive mining industry and the rapidly developing renewable energy sector makes the Atacama a compelling subject.
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
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