Beautiful yet harrowing photos of urban sprawl
Review of ‘Lake Las Vegas/Black Mountain’ by Michael Light.
-
Lake Las Vegas Parkway looking west, guard-gated 'Bella Fiore' development beyond, Henderson, Nevada; 2011
Michael Light/Courtesy Radius Books -
Unbuilt Ascaya lots and culdesac looking northwest, Sun City MacDonald Ranch development beyond, Henderson, Nevada; 2012
Michael Light/Courtesy Radius Books -
Tozzetti Avenue and edge of Roma Hills homes looking east, foreclosed Obsidian Mountain development beyond, Henderson, Nevada; 2012
Michael Light/Courtesy Radius Books -
'Monaco' Lake Las Vegas home and foreclosed neighbor, on guard-gated Grand Corniche Drive, Henderson, Nevada; 2010
Michael Light/Courtesy Radius Books -
City View hiking trail looking southeast, Sun City MacDonald Ranch development below, Henderson, Nevada; 2010
Michael Light/Courtesy Radius Books -
'Mantova' development looking southeast, Lake Mead beyond, Lake Las Vegas, Henderson, Nevada; 2010
Michael Light/Courtesy Radius Books
Lake Las Vegas/Black Mountain
Michael Light
136 pages, hardcover: $60.
Radius Books, 2014.
San Francisco photographer Michael Light focuses on the Western landscape and its transformation by modern American culture. The third book in a multi-volume series of aerial photographs, Some Dry Space: An Inhabited West, Lake Las Vegas/Black Mountain is a beautiful yet harrowing look at urban sprawl and whittled-down desert outside Las Vegas, Nevada.
Light, who is also a pilot, took to the skies in 2010 to study two developments that were temporarily stalled by the real estate decline. Taken during early morning and late afternoon to capture maximum “three-dimensionality,” Light’s photos make space appear vast and surreal. Captivating and vulgar, elegant and raw, these images remind us what it means to live in a constantly changing West.