Economic Collapse Seen Through Aerial Photos of Abandoned Mansions

[unhappycamper]

http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2013/09/michael-light-aerial-photos/#slideid-55511



"Monaco" Lake Las Vegas homes on gated Grand Corniche Drive. Henderson, NV 2010.

Economic Collapse Seen Through Aerial Photos of Abandoned Mansions
By Lyra Kilston
09.13.13 6:30 AM

Michael Light often snaps his photos from a two-seater plane — at a bumpy 70 mph — that he pilots himself at the same time, but you’d never know it from his well-composed aerial shots. From swimming-pooled suburbs in Phoenix to razed hills awaiting their luxury homes in Nevada, Light has been documenting the western U.S.’s unique topography from the air for the past decade.

In his series on Black Mountain, Nevada, Light’s photos put viewers in the plane with him as he glides over 640 acres of dynamite-flattened hilltops, carved through with pristine roads and cul de sacs linking graded house foundations. But there are no houses. No lawns, no pools, no sidewalks. No guard-staffed gates. This is the site of the Ascaya luxury housing development, which has lain dormant since the economic crash of 2008.

~snip~

The Sun Belt cities experienced the most rapid growth of any American urban area in the early 21st century, and were hardest hit in the economic downtown. The ferocious demand for housing — over-sized, over-watered trophy housing — resulted in major alterations to the landscape.

The theme continues in Light’s work on Lake Las Vegas, a complex of luxury housing, country clubs and casinos fringing an artificial lake. The photos capture the surrealism of these “instant cities” made even more uncanny by their stalled development. Huge faux-Mediterranean mansions and irrigated yards neighbor bleak scrub brush. Residents use the empty lots next door for parking. Swaths of velvety golf lawns are framed by barren dirt.


(More pics at link.)

[yourout]

1. Reminds me of "Subdivisions" by Rush

"Subdivisions" by Rush.

Sprawling on the fringes of the city
In geometric order
An insulated border
In between the bright lights
And the far unlit unknown

Growing up it all seems so one-sided
Opinions all provided
The future pre-decided
Detached and subdivided
In the mass production zone
Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone......

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[CanonRay]

2. Looks like there is still construction going on to me

in at least two photos. Unbelievable.

[pscot]

3. One house with what looked like solar panels

One fucking house out there in the desert sun.

[Kolesar]

7. A failing of those developers

...Millionaire developers

[bvar22]

4. American Exceptionalism and Conspicuous Consumption at its finest!

Why would anybody want to live in one of those monstrosities in that barren place?

[Warpy]

5. I know people who live there and consider it paradise

Four months a year it's hell on earth. I guess the rest of the time it's mostly temperate.

At least here in the high desert we have trees to look at. They don't have any of those unless they plant them and go broke watering them.

I only saw one dry swimming pool outside any of the mansions. Either banks are keeping them up or the collapse didn't affect too many people who could afford mansions and were already living in them.

[stevebreeze]

6. Look how big my....looking down...looking up... House is. Yeah my house is BIG really REALLY BIG!

[Kolesar]

8. The terraces look like Mother Nature got stomped

All the scenes have a post-apocalyptic look, especially with the stark shadows.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. Though streets are so steep that

no one would be able to ride a bicycle there.