The Gamblers

This project looks beyond the clichéd veneer of Las Vegas to the people and places that labor to create the facade and the glamour machine that we see from the outside, and represent a quirky version of the American Dream and American leisure.

Las Vegas exists with its own set of paradoxes.  With all of the possibilities that it offers, it’s a mirror reflecting an aspirational version of America, although it simultaneously falls short of the limitless opportunities that America promises. Even though the odds are stacked against you, that doesn’t stop you from playing. Originally built as a destination for entertainment in the uninhabitable environment of the Nevada Desert, the city has become a caricature of itself; cartoon-like buildings illuminated by the sparking lights of casinos with shows on every corner are stark contradictions to the barren landscape that surrounds it. Las Vegas is an unlikely city in an unlikely place. Building on my interests in the mythologies created by subcultures, pop culture, and desert cities, Vegas’s nonsense makes sense.

Rich with opportunity, it’s a destination for people, specifically performers and service workers, with a dream. In this work, performers and casino workers are captured within the history and against the backdrop of Vegas; a female Elvis impersonator, an abandoned motel, and the deep lines in an aged showgirl’s face ask the viewer to search deeper beneath the city’s neon and sparkly surface. Decay and rebirth are constantly present and extravagance exists alongside destitution. I've had the opportunity to spend time with the people that live and work there, and have it made it their home. My subjects know that Vegas is honest about the facade of what it is, go along with it and love it. “America is a very poor lens through which to view Las Vegas, while Las Vegas is a wonderful lens through which to view America. What is hidden elsewhere exists here in quotidian visibility.” – Dave Hickey, “A Home in the Neon,” Air Guitar, 1997

Inspired by Hickey's essay, this project looks beyond the clichéd veneer of Las Vegas to the people and places that labor to create the facade and the glamour machine that we see from the outside. The difference between Vegas and the rest of America, however, is that in Vegas the odds are posted. What appears to be fiction is fact and that lady dressed as Elvis is real.