Since 2010, Jamey Stillings has been documenting renewable energy development through his aerial project, Changing Perspectives: Renewable Energy and the Shifting Human Landscape. The breadth of his work shows the global scale of the energy transformation currently underway, while also revealing the challenges and compromises of this rapid change. According to Stillings, his mission is, “to create imagery relevant to our present-day collective conversation and an eventual historical perspective of this era.”

Striking man-made designs and patterns set against the natural landscape spark curiosity and reflection. While some may think these solar panels and wind turbines are an intrusive addition to the natural environment, many of these projects make use of environments previously disrupted by extractive industries. When Stillings flew above Pompa Elvira, a solar thermal project at the Minera Gaby mine in Chile, he was taken with the shape the panels created, which resembles the female gender symbol. “Here’s a clearly man-made object that has a shine to it, that has an entirely different texture within the landscape of the copper mine….It really plays off the beauty and the potential of renewable energy against the very harshly used landscape.”