The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar

In this new monograph, Jamey Stillings synthesizes his environmental interests with a long-held fascination for the intersections of nature and human activity. In October 2010, before construction commenced, Stillings began a three-and-a-half year aerial exploration over what has become the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Ivanpah) in the Mojave Desert of California. From the simple and stark terrain of the pre-construction landscape to the angular forms of the completed solar plant producing 392 megawatts of electricity on 14 square kilometers of public land, Stillings takes us on a journey of transformation, exploring dynamic interactions between raw organic forms of nature and those defined by the project’s precise geometric lines.
Shooting fluidly and concisely from a helicopter during first and last light, Stillings’ striking black and white images intrigue with tight abstractions, oblique views of geologic and geometric forms, and broad open views of the dramatic desert basin within which the solar plant and other marks of man reside.
Ironically, renewable energy projects, like Ivanpah, also raise challenging questions about land and resource use. Over the course of his work, Stillings observed disparate perspectives and contradictions within the environmental movement, local communities, the energy industry, and general public. Though Ivanpah was built in the American Southwest, the promise and challenge of renewable energy bring forth issues that are global in nature. Stillings’ larger project, Changing Perspectives, will explore the global state of renewable energy development.
The road to a sustainable future remains undefined. Stillings’ photographs strive to participate in our contemporary discussion about the environment and climate change, while providing imagery that will quickly impart historical perspective.