Jamey Stillings

Project Statement The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar is an ongoing photographic essay that grows from my enduring interest in human-altered landscapes, particularly those at the intersections of nature and human activity. These intersections hold great visual, philosophical, environmental and political energy, as they urge me to ponder our individual and collective relationship to the world. An aerial perspective heightens this interest and contextualizes the marks we make upon the land. I am intrigued, inspired, indeed seduced by changes we make to the land to establish an order, pattern and structure that provide utility for our culture and ourselves. Yet such transformations often elicit differing, difficult, and dissonant responses. In this work, my aesthetic and environmental interests form a welcome and essential symbiosis. Both the work's creation and its viewing call forth this symbiosis, as viewers' responses will be formed by their familiarity with the unique perspectives of aerial photography and their degree of environmental awareness. In 2010, prior to commencement of construction, I began photographing over the site of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. When complete at the end of 2013, Ivanpah Solar will become the world's largest concentrated solar thermal power plant producing 377 megawatts of power, enough electricity for 140,000 American homes. The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar explores the nexus formed by the creation of this large-scale renewable energy project in the Mojave Desert of California. Ivanpah Solar is making a compelling physical statement about our collective willingness and ability to shift from a society based on fossil fuels to one that embraces renewable energy. Concurrently, it raises challenging questions about land and resource use while highlighting differing and often contradictory perspectives within the environmental movement, local communities, the energy industry and general public.