Stuart Palley’s work on California wildfires since 2015 is without parallel. He continues the work, documenting both the horrific fires and the unimaginable aftermath on the people and their communities.
Stuart is a Southern California based photographer doing a wide range of work: environmental, editorial, commercial, travel, documentary, motion/video, and fine art subject matter. Born and raised in Southern California, Stuart has photographed for National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, WIRED, New York Magazine, The Washington Post and many other publications.
Stuart holds a Master of Arts in Journalism from the University of Missouri, where he studied photojournalism and was a graduate research assistant for the College Photographer of the Year and Pictures of the Year International. His MA thesis project documented the environmental disaster at the Salton Sea. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Arts from Southern Methodist University, studying finance, history, photography and human rights.
Stuart Palley’s Terra Flamma an endless journey will be on display at the McDougall Gallery in Lee Hills Hall through February 2020.
Los Angeles artist Shane Grammer visited burned out homes and added faces to the disaster in the town of Paradise, CA in March 27th, 2019.
The King Fire burns in the El Dorado National Forest a few hours east of Sacramento, CA in September 2014. The King Fire was significant because of its 40,000 acre growth in just a few hours, which was record growth for a fire in the area. It is indicative of the stressed state of fuels and the extreme behavior that we are witnessing with wildfires due to drought.
The Rim Fire burns in Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest in September 2013. The Rim Fire was one of the largest wildfires in California history, burning more than 200,000 acres. To drive from one end of the fire to the other as a civilian took four hours, a testament to the spread of the blaze.
An Orange County Fire Authority firefighter hoses down a smoldering tree near homes off Marian View Drive in late July during the Cranston Fire near Idyllwild, CA.
Tanker 910, a Very Large Air Tanker or “VLAT” drops flame retardant on a ridge where the Easy Fire burned Wednesday, October 30th, 2019. The Easy Fire burned in the Simi Valley in Ventura County west of Los Angeles, with the blaze pushed by strong Santa Ana Winds. More than 1,300 acre structures were threatened. Santa Ana winds are strong, extremely dry downslope winds that have made fire fighting particularly dangerous and demanding. They originate in cool, dry high-pressure air masses in the Great Basin and are most common October through March.
A road sign in the Alexander Valley on Highway 128 damaged by the Kincade Fire points out the chaos from fighting the Kincade Fire October 28th, 2019 near Windsor, Healdsburg, and Larkfield, Sonoma County, CA. The blaze burned over 65,000 acres.
The residue of the bright red fire retardant dropped to keep communities from being engulfed in flames is hosed down in Paradise.
Estavan Alvarez, Kings River Hotshots crew member, pauses from his work after a day shift Saturday where worked in steep and rugged terrain on the Ferguson Fire in the Sierran National Forest and Yosemite National Park late Saturday, August 11th, 2018. Every fire season the group of 20 travels near and far to work wildfires.
