Jamey Stillings Photograph Collection (PH-00380)

Photographer Jamey Stillings was born in 1955 and grew up in Oregon. Stillings is the principal photographer for Jamey Stillings Photography, Inc. He has a BA in Art from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon and an MFA in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. Stillings’ work spans fine art, documentary, and commissioned projects including The Bridge at Hoover Dam and The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar.

As of 2017 Jamey Stillings lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife, Esha Chiocchio, and their two children.

The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge spans the Colorado River in Black Canyon southwest of the Hoover Dam. The bridge was part of a project to reroute U.S. 93 from the bottleneck of the Hoover Dam. At 890 feet tall and 1,900 feet long, it is the second tallest bridge in the United States and the longest single-span concrete arch bridge in the western hemisphere. Construction began in 2005 on a $240 million project to alleviate traffic near the Hoover Dam and to provide a shorter route for commercial trucks. The bridge alone cost $114 million. The bridge is named in honor of former Nevada governor Mike O’Callaghan and former professional football player Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan while serving in the U.S. Army. The Hoover Dam, also known as the Boulder Dam, was constructed on the Colorado River in Black Canyon near Las Vegas, Nevada from 1931 to 1936 during the Great Depression. The dam impounds Lake Mead, the country's largest reservoir, and it provides hydroelectric power to Nevada, Arizona, and California. The dam was built by workers employed by the joint venture of construction companies called Six Companies, Inc. Six Companies was chosen by the Bureau of Reclamation after winning a bid to construct the dam. The Hoover Dam was dedicated in 1935 and began operations in 1936. Stillings’s photographs of the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge were collected in the book The Bridge at Hoover Dam, published in 2011 by Nazraeli Press.

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is renewable energy project in the Mojave Desert of California generating power to sell to PG&E and Southern California Edison. Bechtel engineering company built the facility as a joint effort of NRG Energy, Inc., Google, and BrightSource Energy. Ivanpah Solar began commercial operation in 2013, delivering power to PG&E and Southern California Edison. At 377 megawatts, Ivanpah Solar is considered the world’s largest concentrated solar facility. In 2010 Stillings commenced a three-and-a-half year aerial photography exploration over the future site of Ivanpah Solar. Photographs from the project have been exhibited around the world and has received several accolades. The photographs were compiled in a book titled The Evolution of Ivanpah Solar that was published in 2015 by Steidl.

Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, developed by SolarReserve and owned by Tonopah Solar Energy, is the first concentrated solar power plant with a central receiver tower and advanced molten salt energy storage technology. Crescent Dunes began operation in September 2015 and was shut down in 2019 when Nevada Energy, the project's sole buyer, terminated the Power Purchase Agreement for failure to produce the contracted solar power production. Photographs of Crescent Dunes were taken by Stillings between June 24, 2014 and October 9, 2015. The photographs are part of a documentation project by Stillings on global renewable energy development titled CHANGING PERSPECTIVES: Renewable Energy and the Shifting Human Landscape. Photographs from the project have been exhibited and published in National Geographic, Time, and the New Republic.