Vis ions of Mary land photography by
L i n d a a lt e r w i t z ( l) fine art
A a r o n m ay e s ( A ) people
J a k o b M c C a r t h y (J ) architecture
Why shoot Maryland Parkway instead of, you know, that other big, insanely photogenic street a few miles away? Why, when we assigned these three photographers to capture that elusive quality known as sense of place, did we opt for the understudy instead of the diva? Easy. Visual as the Strip is, we didn’t want the usual dream-factory celebrations. No pretty-city glamour shots. We wanted striking images that would also aggregate as a multifaceted portrait of the city as we know it, as we live it every day: filled with incredibly varied residents, unexpected visions, strange juxtapositions; enlivened by vitalities old (UNLV) and new (the Gay and Lesbian Center), encrusted here and there with history (the Huntridge Theatre), occasionally rattled by conflict (the Huntridge again) and resonant with the kind of big, failed dreams that just might’ve changed the city (the Midtown project, Flavor Flav’s House of Flavor). That's Maryland Parkway, and a lot of it is captured on these pages. Las Vegas Boulevard might be the boulevard, but Maryland Parkway is our boulevard.
That’s why.
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JUNE 2014
DesertCompanion.com
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