During his near 30-year career, he has photographed conflict, politics, activism, daily life around the world and in his own backyard. Currently, Palmer is working on Make the Ground Talk with his wife, Erin Hollaway Palmer, a documentary that evokes life in a historic black community that was uprooted during World War II to build a naval base, now a top-secret U.S. military installation. Another project, photography of Virginia's neglected African American cemeteries, grew out of this documentary.