Max Whittaker • Photographer Profile

The years-long drought in California has led to a steady uptick in the number, size and ferocity in wildfires in the state. Wildfires are a natural phenomenon, but drought, climate change and decades of fire suppression led to more than 6,000 wildfires burning more than 300,000 acres in 2015 alone.

On the evening of March 18, 2018, Sacramento Police Officers Officers Terrence Mercadal and Jared Robinet were investigating routine vandalism complaints in the Meadowview neighborhood when they shot and killed Stephon Clark, 22, in his grandmother’s backyard. They claimed he pointed a gun at them. It was a cellphone.

"In the Shadow of the Sun" is a rebuttal to the typical representation of California as a land of wealth and beauty. It's not just the home of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, Yosemite and Napa. It's also the state with the highest rate of poverty in the nation.

The American West is entering it’s fourth year of a historic drought. Climate change is playing a role, but there’s simply not enough water to support the increasing population and large-scale agriculture in what is essentially a desert.