Ian Bates is a photographer originally from New Jersey and now based in San Anselmo, in the San Francisco Bay Area. His work explores contradictions in human nature and the ways people interact with the environments they live in. His photographs have been shown at Pier 24 in San Francisco, Filter Space in Chicago and the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel. In 2017 he was selected as one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch. His editorial work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, WIRED, National Geographic, Smithsonian and Rolling Stone.
His book The Weight of Ash (Deadbeat Club, 2025) gathers black-and-white photographs made between 2014 and 2020 in places burned by wildfires in California, Washington and North Dakota. Instead of the flames, it shows what remains: burned forests, damaged homes, altered objects and land covered in ash. The book includes a poem by Caitlin Lorraine Johnson and an essay by Daniel Gumbiner. His earlier books with Deadbeat Club are Meadowlark (2022) and Lost Dog (2023).
