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Photography


05.16.13: Jim Bassett

“Everyone a Tourist”
On Places, a slideshow of photographs of the Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá, by Jim Bassett, contrasts the romantic tradition of travel photography with the realities of mass tourism.
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05.13.13: Belmont Freeman

Digital Deception
On Places, Belmont Freeman argues it's time to grapple with the artistic and professional consequences — and ethical dilemmas — of today's ever more powerful digital rendering technologies.
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05.09.13: Thomas Jorion & Josh Wallaert

Temple of the Vanities
On Places, recent work by photographer Thomas Jorion, documenting defense towers, nuclear reactors, munitions depots and other 20th-century monuments to political and military hubris, now mostly abandoned.
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05.02.13: Peter Holzhauer & Aaron Rothman

Expect Everything
On Places, a slideshow by photographer Peter Holzhauer, of his recent work on Los Angeles, curated by Aaron Rothman.
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04.18.13: Dennis DeHart

Confluences
On Places, photographs by Dennis DeHart examine a landscape of contradictions in the Inland Pacific Northwest.
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03.28.13: Arturo Soto & Aaron Rothman

Blind Views
On Places, a portfolio by Mexican photographer Arturo Soto, focusing on the visual infrastructure of the street, the unremarkable environs of everyday life.
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03.19.13: Mark Feldman

Illuminating the Petrochemical Landscape
On Places, Mark Feldman reviews collaborative projects that blend photography with environmental activism, including Petrochemical America and Arctic Voices.
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02.21.13: Ken McCown

Creatures of Helsinki
On Places, a slideshow of photographs by Ken McCown highlighting the "creatures of Helsinki" — the myriad animals, crafted of stone or wood, that adorn the architecture of the Finnish capital.
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02.04.13: D.J. Waldie

Beautiful and Terrible: Aeriality and the Image of Suburbia
On Places, D.J. Waldie explores the relationship between aerial photography and the postwar suburban boom, a relationship at once materialistic and transcendent, "beautiful and terrible."
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12.06.12: Michael Light & Aaron Rothman

Above Lake Las Vegas
On Places, aerial photographs of the bankrupt luxury communities of Lake Las Vegas, by Michael Light.
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12.03.12: Dave Jordano & Aaron Rothman

Detroit, As Is
On Places, a portfolio by the Detroit-born photographer Dave Jordano, drawn from his latest series, Detroit Unbroken Down; with an introduction by Aaron Rothman.
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11.15.12: Thomas Jorion

The Forgotten Line
On Places, photographer Thomas Jorion documents la petite ceinture, the abandoned railway line that circles Paris, and remains the city's last great wasteland.
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10.25.12: Terry Evans & Alan Thomas

Heartland
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Terry Evans documents the "disturbed, cultivated, militarized" landscapes of her native American Midwest; with commentary by Alan Thomas.
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10.17.12: David Bacher

Far North
On Places, photographer David Bacher documents the semi-nomadic Laevas Sami community of northern Scandinavia, which now moves fluidly between tradition and modernity.
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10.04.12: Melissa Dittmer

Lafayette Park: Living in Ordered Exhibition
On Places, Melissa Dittmer describes the experience of living in Mies van der Rohe's Lafayette Park in Detroit, where the glass-and-steel architecture encourages "a sense of intimacy that fosters community."
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09.27.12: Mark Robbins & Nancy Levinson

Student/Teacher
On Places, a portfolio of Mark Robbins's photographs of Rwandan households —part of his ongoing exploration of culture, space, decor and the body.
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09.06.12: Daniel Kariko & Aaron Rothman

Storm Season
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Daniel Kariko records the fragile and changing landscapes of the barrier islands of southern Louisiana.
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08.28.12: Aaron Rothman, David La Spina, Ed Panar & Michael Vahrenwald

Landscape Photography: New Visions, Part 5
On Places, the fifth installment in a month-long series, curated by Aaron Rothman, on currents in landscape photography.
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08.21.12: Aaron Rothman, Bryan Graf, Christina Seely, Kirsten Kay Thoen & Letha Wilson

Landscape Photography: New Visions, Part 4
On Places, the fourth installment in a month-long series, curated by Aaron Rothman, on currents in landscape photography.
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08.14.12: Aaron Rothman, Bleda y Rosa, Patrick Manning, Richard Mosse & Stephen Tourlentes

Landscape Photography: New Visions, Part 3
On Places, the third installment in a month-long series, curated by Aaron Rothman, on currents in landscape photography.
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08.08.12: Aaron Rothman, Matthew Brandt, William Lamson, Chris McCaw & Mieke Woestenburg

Landscape Photography: New Visions, Part 2
On Places, the second installment in a month-long series, curated by Aaron Rothman, on currents in landscape photography.
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08.01.12: Aaron Rothman, Marisa Baumgartner, Guillermo Gudiño & Dan Holdsworth

Landscape Photography: New Visions
On Places, the first installment in a month-long series, curated by Aaron Rothman, on currents in landscape photography.
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06.14.12: Henk Wildschut & Aaron Rothman

Shelter
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Henk Wildschut documents a crisis hidden in plain sight — the network of transient camps set up all across Europe by undocumented workers from Africa and Asia.
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05.29.12: Rolf Potts

Tourist Snapshots
On Places, as the summer season starts, writer Rolf Potts recollects scenes from his life as a traveler with a camera, from a 9th-grade civics class trip  to Washington to later journeys around the world.
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05.17.12: Eric William Carroll

Plato's Home Movies
On Places, a portfolio of images by photographer Eric William Carroll, who set up a projection screen in Golden Gate Park and laid out blueprint paper on the sidewalks of Brooklyn to capture ephemeral portraits of trees.
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05.10.12: Zhang Xiao & Aaron Rothman

The Last Days of Kaixian
On Places, a slideshow by Chinese photographer Zhang Xiao, documenting the last town to be submerged by the reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam; with an introduction by Aaron Rothman.
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04.26.12: Mark Feldman

Visualizing the Ends of Oil
On Places, Mark Feldman looks closely at how the photographers Edward Burtynsky and Chris Jordan have each struggled to visualize and critique the effects of our dependence on oil.
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04.05.12: Placement & Corine Vermeulen

Living with Mies: The Towers at Lafayette Park
On Places, photographer Corine Vermeulen and the design collective Placement offer a glimpse of life in Lafayette Park, the Mies van der Rohe-designed residential complex in Detroit.
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03.29.12: Robert Adams & Aaron Rothman

We Are in a Western Town
On Places, Aaron Rothman explores the enduring power of the photographs of Robert Adams, and what they reveal about the paradoxical landscape of the American West.
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03.21.12: Hadley Arnold & Peter Arnold

Drylands: Water and the West
On Places, an essay and slideshow by Peter Arnold and Hadley Arnold of the Arid Lands Institute, on what they call "the largest and least understood environmental challenge of the 21st century."
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02.23.12: David Schalliol

A Method of Living
On Places, photos by David Schalliol show the dramatic transformation of public housing in Chicago — the demolition of the city's infamous projects and their replacement with mixed-income, new-urbanist-style communities.
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01.26.12: Michael Lundgren, Aaron Rothman & Josh Wallaert

If There Be Such Space
On Places, a slideshow drawn from a collaborative exhibition by two photographers who share an interest in the perception and representation of natural landscapes.
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01.12.12: Dave Jordano & Aaron Rothman

Detroit Re-Photography
On Places, the Detroit Rephotography Survey, by Dave Jordano, documents the same sites in the early 1970s and 2010.
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01.09.12: Jerry Herron

The Forgetting Machine: Notes Toward a History of Detroit
On Places, Jerry Herron tracks the decline and fall of his home city of Detroit, from ruin porn to the demolition of Hudson's to Henry Ford's first horseless carriage.
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12.15.11: Kathleen Robbins & Mary Carol Miller

Cotton Farmers
On Places, photographer Kathleen Robbins and writer Mary Carol Miller focus on the cotton farms of their native Mississippi — a changing landscape and vanishing livelihood.
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10.26.11: Center for Creative Photography & Mark Klett

Water in the West
On Places, a slideshow from the collaborative photography project Water in the West, with an introduction by Mark Klett.
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10.20.11: Jason Griffiths

Manifest Destiny: A Guide to the Essential Indifference of American Suburban Housing
On Places, British architect Jason Griffiths offers a close reading of modern American suburbia, where mass production meets the myth of the arcadian frontier.
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10.06.11: Brian Ulrich

Is This Place Great or What
On Places, a slideshow by photographer Brian Ulrich explores "dark stores" — empty big boxes and ghost malls, collateral consumer damage of the economic crash.
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09.27.11: William L. Fox & Mark Klett

The Half-Life of History
On Places, writer William Fox and photographer Mark Klett document the semi-ruin of the WW II military airfield at Wendover, Utah, where the U.S. Air Force trained for the bombing of Hiroshima.
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09.09.11: Christian Widmer & Aaron Rothman

Non Zero Sum
On Places, a portfolio of images by photographer Christian Widmer that captures the unease that's marked the decade since September 11, 2001.
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09.01.11: Alan Thomas

The Blue Corvette
On Places, a slideshow of summer season photographs by Alan Thomas, made in an "America of lengthening shadows."
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07.28.11: Leigh Merrill

North Texas Strip
On Places, a slideshow by Leigh Merrill, whose photographs of the Dallas strip depict places that look familiar but are in fact digital fabrications — a kind of Texas tall tale.
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07.21.11: Justin Partyka

The Place That Roger Built
On Places, a slideshow of photographs by Justin Partyka of Walnut Tree Farm, the old Suffolk farmstead where late environmental writer Roger Deakin lived and worked.
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07.18.11: Alex Schafran

Scenes from Surrendered Homes
On Places, urban historian Alex Schafran looks closely at Douglas Smith's photographs of foreclosed homes in California, and sees poignant documentation of the personal toll of the great recession.
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07.11.11: Mark Klett & Aaron Rothman

Views Across Time
On Places, an interview with photographer Mark Klett and a slideshow from his ongoing rephotography project, with views across time of the American West.
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06.30.11: Ken McCown

Point of Astonishment
On Places, architect Ken McCown's photographic record of a New Zealand  journey — where the panoramic vistas and unpolluted atmosphere recall what the Western U.S. was like decades ago.
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04.29.11: Gita Lenz & Gordon Stettinius

Gita Lenz: New York Views
On Places, a gallery by the mid-century New York photographer Gita Lenz, whose long neglected work is gaining new recognition.
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04.05.11: Michael Light & David L. Ulin

L.A. Day/L.A. Night
On Places, a portfolio of images by photographer Michael Light, exploring Los Angeles in the day and at night, with an essay by David L. Ulin.
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03.24.11: Alejandro Cartagena & Aaron Rothman

Lost Rivers
On Places, a portfolio of images by Mexican photographer Alejandro Cartagena, documenting the ecological effects of rapid urbanization.
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03.17.11: John Mann

Folded in Place
On Places, a portfolio of images by photographer John Mann, showing artful deconstructions and reconstructions of maps.
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03.03.11: Justin Partyka

Black Fen
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Justin Partyka focusing on the fenlands of eastern England and a vanishing way of life.
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02.17.11: David Clements & Douglas Haller

Writing on the Wall
On Places, a portfolio of photographs by Detroit local David Clements, of some of the many hand-painted signs and murals found throughout the Motor City.
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02.10.11: Brian Rosa & Adam Ryder

The Edge of Light: Wendover
On Places, photographs by Brian Rosa and Adam Ryder document the nighttime mysteries of Wendover, where military history, land-speed racing and the casino industry make for unexpected juxtapositions.
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01.27.11: Alejandro Cartagena & Aaron Rothman

Fragmented Cities
On Places, a selection of images by Mexican photographer Alejandro Cartagena, documenting the rapid suburbanization and disappearing natural landscapes of Monterrey.
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12.28.10: Ken McCown

Full of Beauties
On Places, photographs by Ken McCown, focusing on fragments of contemporary buildings and public art and on natural landscapes from California to New Zealand to Korea.
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12.23.10: Jesus de Francisco

The Rings of Saturn
On Places, a portfolio of photographs of neglected landscapes, from Los Angeles to Berlin, by art director and photographer Jesus de Francisco.
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12.09.10: Keith Eggener

Building on Burial Ground
On Places, architectural historian Keith Eggener looks at American graveyards and cemeteries past and present, from Mount Auburn to Forest Lawn to contemporary LCD-enabled eulogies.
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12.02.10: Justin Partyka

Saskatchewan
On Places, photographer Justin Partyka explores the Saskatchewan prairie, where the agricultural life is giving way to the urban, and the landscape is an uneasy record of the change.
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11.23.10: Jason Reblando

New Deal Utopias
On Places, photographer Jason Reblando documents the Greenbelt Towns created by the New Deal of the 1930s — an earlier era's response to tough times.
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11.11.10: Frank Schirrmeister

Plain City
On Places, photographer Frank Schirrmeister wanders at dawn with a large format camera through the empty streets of Berlin.
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10.28.10: Max Page & Paul Johansen

Landmarks of Punishment: Eastern State and Charles Street
On Places, architectural historian Max Page and photographer Paul Johansen document two landmarks of U.S. prison architecture and penal philosophy: Eastern State Penitentiary and Charles Street Jail.
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08.11.10: Justin Partyka

The East Anglians
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Justin Partyka, documenting a deep-rooted but fragile agrarian community in East Anglia.
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08.04.10: Luther Thie & Kathrine Worel

Frontiers: On the Edge in Merced and Malibu
On Places, a portfolio of photographs by Luther Thie and Kathrine Worel, documenting houses and homes on the frontiers of the contemporary economic and environmental crises.
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06.19.10: Kim Høltermand

We Are All Alone
On Places, a gallery of images of buildings — "desolate containers" — by Danish photographer (and fingerprints expert) Kim Høltermand. 
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05.27.10: Leigh Merrill

Streets: Into the Sunset
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Leigh Merrill of photo-fabrications of the streets of San Francisco — images that are, like home ownership in America, an unsettling mix of fantasy and reality.
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04.30.10: Bill Guy

Take Me To
On Places, a gallery of images of downtown Chicago by photographer Bill Guy. 
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04.22.10: Paho Mann & Nancy Levinson

The Art of Solid Waste
On Places, a slideshow of photographer Paho Mann's images of post-consumer detritus — a.k.a. trash — part of a new public art project at a solid waste facility in Phoenix, Arizona.
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03.26.10: Gavin Browning, Greta Hansen & Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong

Trans Siberia
On Places, selected images from Trans Siberia, the new exhibition at Columbia's Studio-X New York, focusing on the administrative buildings of the Communist party in the former Soviet Union and China.
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03.15.10: Frank Gohlke

Grain Elevators
On Places, a slideshow of photographs from Frank Gohlke's series on grain elevators in the American Midwest and Great Plains.
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03.05.10: Ken McCown

Designed Landscapes
A portfolio of photographs of designed structures and landscapes — from La Jolla to Marfa, from Hadrian's Villa to Storm King — by landscape architecture professor Ken McCown.
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03.01.10: Brian Rosa

Frank Gohlke: Thoughts on Landscape
On Places, Brian Rosa reviews Frank Gohlke's Thoughts on Landscape, a volume of collected writings which shows that this leading American photographer is as eloquent with words as with images.
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03.01.10: Shana Lopes

New (and Old) Topographics
On Places, New (and Old) Topographics — selected photographs from the Center for Creative Photography that comprise a complementary exhibition to the current restaging of the groundbreaking 1975 show New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape.
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03.01.10: Alan Thomas

Open Secrets: Photographs of Japan
On Places, photographs by Alan Thomas that explore the "peculiar geometries" of urban Japan — the small-scale improvisational spaces in between the big planned projects, and beyond the busy entertainment districts and the crowded department stores.
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02.05.10: Alan Thomas

Chicago Self-Park
In Chicago Self-Park, editor and photographer Alan Thomas explores the city's large multistory parking structures, which "give the viewer inside a particular way of framing the cityscape beyond."
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02.03.10: Aaron Rothman

This Place is a Message
On Places, a portfolio of recent photographs of natural and built landscapes by Arizona-based artist and photographer Aaron Rothman.
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11.22.09: Sergio Lopez-Piñeiro

White Space
Architect Sergio Lopez-Pineiro explores the urban design potential of snow, with the goal of creating "white parks" and generating new appreciation for the city in winter.
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11.14.09: Center for Land Use Interpretation

Urban Crude
An online gallery extracted from Urban Crude, an exhibition created by the Center for Land Use Interpretation, documenting the metropolitan petroscape of Los Angeles.
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10.20.09: William L. Fox

Las Vegas
Writer and critic William L. Fox reviews Las Vegas, by Nicole Huber and Ralph Stern, probing the improbable success of the gambling-entertainment world-city constructed in the midst of the Mojave.
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10.18.09: Ken McCown

Found Landscapes
A portfolio of photographs, with images ranging from the American West to Vatican City, by landscape architect Ken McCown.
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09.27.09: Paho Mann & Nancy Levinson

Re-Inhabited Circle Ks
Photographer Paho Mann focuses his camera on the "reinhabited" Circle Ks of Phoenix and Albuquerque — and finds a welcome dose of local commitment on the commercial strip.
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09.12.09: Nicole Huber & Ralph Stern

Urbanizing the Mojave
America's greatest boomtown has gone bust. Architects Nicole Huber and Ralph Stern explore the cultural and environmental consequences of the rapid expansion of Las Vegas into the Mojave Desert, tracing a troubled history of mining, militarization, tourism, and water politics.
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09.08.09: Mark Klett

Placing Memory
Photographer Mark Klett reviews Placing Memory, which juxtaposes contemporary color photos of abandoned Japanese-American internment camps, by photographer Todd Stewart, with government-commissioned period images, to haunting effect.
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01.15.03: Cervin Robinson

Portfolio: Timothy Hursley
Tim Hursley photographs the pro-bono buildings of the Rural Studio and the legal brothels of Nye County, Nevada.
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07.01.00: Elizabeth Felicella

Portfolio: Uneasy Spaces
New York City photographer Elizabeth Felicella focuses on what she calls "landscape of security."
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