James Bolenbaugh is a photographer whose work explores the intersection of human labor, impermanence, and the natural environment. Using a specialized medium-format panoramic film camera, Bolenbaugh documents the landscapes and infrastructure created by blue-collar workers in extreme environments. He captures the traces left behind by human endeavor—tents, tools, machinery, and shelters—highlighting the transient nature of these constructions in landscapes that relentlessly seek to erase them.

By combining large-scale analog photography with a deeply personal engagement with the environments and workers that shape them, his work transcends documentary, immersing the viewer in a tactile, almost monumental experience of space, time, and labor. Through these images, Bolenbaugh explores themes of endurance, isolation, and transformation, offering a quiet yet powerful commentary on the resilience of human effort in places where survival is a constant challenge.