[This was] something I’d long suspected abstractly: that the extraction industries and the habitation industries are two sides of the same coin. Seeing entire mountains graded into building pads for gated luxury homes and ‘purpose-built communities,’ only to be left to slowly revert to sagebrush in bankruptcy, was the most naked and skeletal revelation of the speculative habitation machine I’d yet seen.Indeed, in his photographs of these sites it is sometimes difficult to discern whether you are looking at an abandoned mining operation or an aborted housing development. Only the iconic shape of a cul-de-sac tips you off.
Comprising 21 Mediterranean-themed communities ... three golf courses, a casino, two destination resort hotels and ... a replica of the Ponte Vecchio, this shining Lake Como amidst the sewage-filled Henderson swamp began its literally-dammed life in 1991. Home sales began in 1992, and by 2002 its most famous resident, Celine Dion, had moved in, with luxurious Italianate skies seeming the limit. By 2008, however, the entire 1,600-home resort was in foreclosure, as its primary developer, Transcontinental Corporation, funded by the Bass Brothers of Forth Worth, Texas, defaulted on between $500 million and $1 billion in debt, primarily in speculative loans from Swiss and foreign banks.From their aerial perspective, Light’s images show a startling disconnect between the constructed oasis of the Lake Las Vegas developments and the reality of the land they occupy. A complete transformation of place has been enacted to materialize what Light refers to as a “particularly American domestic dream,” and not just in the vast amounts of earth moved to accommodate so many palatial residences. It is as if some distant and fantastical land has been collaged onto the stark geology of the Mojave Desert — even the light surrounding the houses seems different, softer. The vast space and clear light of the desert, seemingly free from the weight of history, have somehow made anything seem possible here.
