Jamey Stillings (born in 1955) is an American photographer and artist known primarily for his

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other flight, airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wi ...

of renewable energy projects around the world, documenting the

human impact on the environment Human impact on the environment (or anthropogenic environmental impact) refers to changes to biophysical environments and to ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources caused directly or indirectly by humans. Modifying the environment to ...

. Stillings presents at photo festivals, universities, and professional conferences globally. His work is exhibited and published widely in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. His award-winning book, The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar (

Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher based in Göttingen, Germany. Founded in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl, it publishes photobooks. Overview The company was started by Gerhard Steidl.Bill Kouwenhoven, "Off to see the wizard", ''British Journa ...

, 2015), documents the

Ivanpah Solar Power Facility The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a concentrated solar thermal plant located in the Mojave Desert located at the base of Clark Mountain in California, across the state line from Primm, Nevada. It is slated to close in 2026. The ...

in the Mojave Desert of California. His photographs are in private and public collections, including the United States Library of Congress, the Museum of Fine Arts - Houston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Nevada Museum of Art. Since 2010, Jamey Stillings' has focused on renewable energy through an aerial project entitled Changing Perspectives: Renewable Energy and the Shifting Human Landscape. He has photographed extensively over the United States, Japan, Uruguay, and Chile from helicopters and light airplanes.

Education

Jamey Stillings earned a BA in art from

Willamette University Willamette University is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college with locations in Salem, Oregon, Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United ...

, ''magna cum laude'' (1978), and an MFA in Photography from

Rochester Institute of Technology The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York, Rochester. It was founded in 1829. It is one of only two institute of technology, institut ...

(1982). His documentary master's thesis, ''Nicaragua: A Society in Transition'' (1980–81), examined social and economic changes in three rural Nicaraguan communities following the

Sandinista revolution The Nicaraguan Revolution () began with rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the ouster of the dictatorship in 1978–79, and fighting between the government and the Contras from 1981 to 1990. The revolution r ...

Major photographic projects

* ''The Bridge at Hoover Dam'' Stillings documented the construction of the Mike O’Callaghan—Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, downstream from

Hoover Dam The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado, Black Canyon of the Colorado River (U.S.), Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, d ...

, unique for its historical importance and its technical achievement. Over a two-year period, Stillings returned to document the Bridge sixteen times. A monograph of the work, ''The Bridge at Hoover Dam'', was published by Nazraeli Press in 2011. * ''The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar'' Over a period of four years, Stillings did aerial photography documenting the construction of the

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a concentrated solar thermal plant located in the Mojave Desert located at the base of Clark Mountain in California, across the state line from Primm, Nevada. It is slated to close in 2026. The ...

in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

of California. When completed in 2014, this facility was the world's largest concentrated solar thermal power plant. A monograph of the work, ''The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar'', was published by Steidl in 2015. * ''Changing Perspectives: Renewable Energy and the Shifting Human Landscape'' is Stillings’ long-term project. He has extensively documented

renewable energy development Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include b ...

in the American West,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

.The work has been internationally exhibited, published and collected. * ''Atacama: Renewable Energy and Mining in the High Desert of Chile'' examines the evolving nexus between renewable energy development and mining in the Atacama Desert of Chile, part of Stillings’ larger Changing Perspectives project. In 2017, Stillings documented new renewable energy projects in the Atacama that are reducing

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

's dependence on fossil fuels while supplying significant electricity to the northern grid and transmitting power to population centers in the south. ''ATACAMA'' explores utility-scale renewable energy projects including

solar power Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to c ...

, enormous

mining operations Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

, and the stark beauty of the Atacama Desert. A monograph of the work was published by Steidl in 2023.

Publications

* ''The Bridge at Hoover Dam'',

Nazraeli Press Nazraeli Press is a publisher of books of photography. It was founded in 1989, in Munich, Germany, by Chris Pichler and has been based in the US since 1996. Nazraeli publishes roughly 30 new titles each year and has published over 400 with work b ...

, 2011, , essays by William L. Fox and Jamey Stillings * ''The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar'',

, Göttingen, Germany, 2015, . With foreword by

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades such as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the ...

, introduction by

Anne Wilkes Tucker Anne Wilkes Tucker (born 1945) is a former American curator of photographic works. She retired in June 2015. Life and work Tucker was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She received a B.A. in Art History from Randolph College, Randolph Macon Woman' ...

, essays by

Bruce Barcott Bruce Barcott is an American editor, environmental journalist and author. He is a contributing editor of ''Outside'' and has written articles for ''The New York Times Magazine'', ''National Geographic'', '' Mother Jones'', ''Sports Illustrated'', ...

and Jamey Stillings *

Selected editorial publications

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...

, “Bridge to Somewhere,” June 2009 *

Smithsonian Magazine ''Smithsonian'' is a magazine covering science, history, art, popular culture and innovation. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' magazine ...

, “A Breathtaking New Bridge,” December 2010 * The New York Times Magazine, "A Bet on the Sun," June 17, 2012 * Newsweek Japan, "Picture Power: The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar," December 2012 * NPR, The Picture Show, "Under Construction: The World's Largest Thermal Solar Plant," January 9, 2013 *

TIME Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...

, "Power Surge," October 2013 * TIME Magazine, "A Burst of Energy," March 2015 *

Macleans ''Maclean's'' is a Canadian magazine founded in 1905 which reports on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, trends and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian ...

, "Photo essay: Capturing the Sun," Canada, November 23, 2015, p. 47 (5 pgs) *

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

, "A Blueprint for a Carbon-Free America," November 2015 * New Republic, "The Beauty of the World’s Largest Solar Project," December 4, 2015 * WIRED Italia, "Riflessi Solari," Italy, March 3, 2016 * National Geographic, "The Art of Solar Energy," June 2016 *

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

, “Japan’s Renewable-Energy Revolution,” July 2017 *

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

, “The Renewable Desert,” August 2018 * Photoworld, “Jamey Stillings: Documenting Renewable Energy Development from the Air,” China, June 2020

Collections

Jamey Stillings’ work is in the permanent collections of the

U.S. Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers copyright law t ...

; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston;

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

(LACMA);

Nevada Museum of Art The Nevada Museum of Art, is an art museum in Reno, Nevada. Located at 160 West Liberty Street in Reno, it is the only American Alliance of Museums (AAM) accredited art museum in the state of Nevada. The museum has chosen a thematic approach, pl ...

, Center for Art + Environment; UNLV University Libraries Special Collections & Archives; University of Arizona,

Center for Creative Photography The Center for Creative Photography (CCP), established in 1975 and located on the University of Arizona's Tucson campus, is a research facility and archival repository containing the full archives of over sixty of the most famous American ph ...

; Middlebury College Museum of Art; and

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

Libraries Special Collections & University Archives

Selected exhibitions

* photo-eye Gallery, “The Bridge at Hoover Dam,” Premier Exhibition, Santa Fe, NM, 2009 * Etherton Gallery, “Con-struct: The New West,” three artist exhibition, Tucson, AZ, 2010 *

Springs Preserve Las Vegas Springs Preserve consists of dedicated to nature walks and displays and is owned and operated by the Las Vegas Valley Water District. The Preserve is located approximately three miles west of downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, Las Vegas, Nev ...

, “The Bridge at Hoover Dam,” Las Vegas, NV, 2010 *

Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest art museum, museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,0 ...

, “The Bridge at Hoover Dam,” Phoenix, AZ, 2011 * photo-eye Gallery, "The Bridge at Hoover Dam," Santa Fe, NM, 2011 * Blue Sky Gallery, "The Bridge at Hoover Dam," Portland, OR, 2012 * PhotoVisa, "The Bridge at Hoover Dam," Solo Exhibition, Krasnodar, Russia, 2014 *

Center for Fine Art Photography The Center for Fine Art Photography is a non-profit exhibition and education space located in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. The Center was founded in 2004 and features rotating exhibitions of fine art photography by artists from around th ...

, "The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar," Solo Exhibition, curated by Hamidah Glasgow Ft. Collins, CO, 2014 * Festival de la Luz, "La Evolución de Ivanpah Solar," Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2014 * Etherton Gallery, "The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar," Tucson, AZ, 2014-15 * UN Climate Change Legacy Exhibition, COP21, group exhibition, Paris, 2015 * Lianzhou Foto Festival 2015, "The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar," Solo Exhibition, Lianzhou, China * Dishman Art Museum, Lamar University, “Jamey Stillings: The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar,” Beaumont, TX, 2016 * Mt. Rokko International Photo Festival, "The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar," Solo Exhibition, Kobe, Japan, 2016 * FotoFest 2016 Biennial, ''Changing Circumstances: Looking at the Future of the Planet'', Featured Artist, Group Exhibition, curated by Wendy Watriss, Fred Baldwin, and Steven Evans, Houston, TX, 2016 * Pingyao International Photography Festival 2017, "Changing Perspectives: Renewable Energy and Infrastructure," Solo Exhibition, Pingyao, China * Festival de la Luz, “Changing Perspectives: Renewable Energy and the Shifting Human Landscape,” Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2018 * Head On Photo Festival 2018, "Changing Perspectives: Renewable Energy and the Shifting Human Landscape," Solo Exhibition, Sydney, Australia

Selected awards

* CENTER Director's Choice Award, First Place, 2010 *

International Photography Awards The International Photography Awards are a group of awards for professional, non-professional and student photographers on a global scale which are awarded annually at the Lucie Awards gala. The winners of the main categories are invited to attend ...

, 1st Place, Editorial: Environmental, Pro 2013 * Photolucida Critical Mass 2013 Solo Show Award *

TIME Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

's Best Photobooks of 2015 * International Photographer of the Year 2016, First Place, Editorial: Environmental *

2016, Professional: Book Photographer of the Year, and Monograph, First Place * Photo Independent's 2016 Photobook Awards, Best in Show

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stillings, Jamey American photographers Living people 1955 births Willamette University alumni Rochester Institute of Technology alumni